Full text of "NEXT Generation Issue #9 September 1995"

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Sega Saturn ■ PlayStation ■ 3D0 Ultr

ding edge computer and video

sjiu/jy;

September I99f

PlayStat

iving

Got a PlayStation? Then get this.
Destruction Derby pushes Sony's
32-bit game machine to the limit

Sega Saturn: Game developers hate it, so hov

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on- 1 JSL\- -f

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This is the hardware,

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opening

These are real screen shots.

September 9, 1995: As the world's most powerful game machine goes
on nationwide sale for $299, a brand new chapter begins in a story that started in
1972 with Nolan Bushnell's Pong. PlayStation's hardware epitomizes the advances
made in interactive entertainment during the last 23 years — and represents
videogaming's coming of age.
The official US launch of Sony's PlayStation fulfills the ambitions of a

giant, multinational corporation long envious of Sega and Nintendo's dominance of

the $10-billion world-gaming market. The videogame business Is bigger than the

movie industry (Shigeru Miyamoto's Super Mario Bros 3 made more money than

Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park).

And now Sony has a slice of the action.

This month gaming changes forever.

Videogaming is in the big leagues.

Will software creators continue to flourish and grow? Will creativity or commercial viability be the prime directives?
Games like Jumping Flash!, Battle Arena Toshinden, and now Destruction Derby (see page 58) would indicate that the future
has never looked brighter. Let's hope it stays that way.

NEXT Generation will continue to report accurately and fairly from this brave new videogaming world — because
when you're caught in the crossfire of the biggest platform wars of all time, you
need reliable information. Isn't it good to know that as videogaming changes
forever, magazines already have?

M*44m s 9*dl*l!m

Contact

NEXT Generation

Imagine Publishing, Inc
1350 Old Bayshore Highway, S
Burlingame CA 94010
Subscriptions 415. 696. 1661
(E-mail: ngsubs@aol.com)
Advertising 415.696. 1688
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(E-mail; ngonline@imagin
FAX 415. 696. 1678

Neil West ed
Douglass Perry

Trent Ward rev
Chris Charla
Eugene Wang
Richard Szeto

1 director

Editorial Contributors
Patrick Baggatta, Dan Bennett, Nicolas
di Costanza, Chris Hudak, Francis Kong,
Jeff Lundrigan, Mark Ramshaw, Mike
Salmon, Marcus Webb, Bernard Yee,
EDGE Magazine

Advertising

Doug (Brick) Faust ad manager
Aldo Ghiozzi account executive
Simon Whitcombe business development
Melody Stephenson ad coordinator

So which 32-bit system Is Electronics Arts betting on?

If EA hadn't backed Sega's fledgling Genesis at the dawn of 1 6-bit, there might not even be a Sega Saturn now. The question is which

32-bit system is the world's premiere developer backing this

NEXT Generation talks to EA'sVP Bing Gordan to find c

Subscriptions

Gail Egbert subscripts

J nliEt Lallas ,..■■.:■■■■■- : ■.

Roger Burctiill production coordinator
Richard Lesovoy production director

Imagine Publishing Inc.

Jonathan Simpson-Bint publisher
Mary Keeney marketing coordinator
Melody Stephenson here she is again
Maryanne Napoli dir. single copy sales
Doug Haynie circulation analyst
Bruce Eldridge newsstand sales manager
Tom Valentino vice president/CFO
Chris Anderson president

NEXT Generation USSNS 1078-9693) is

published monthly by Imagine Publishing,
inc, Suite 210, 1350 Old Bayshore
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Reality Check: the future of VR

While the concept of home VR has been increasingly hyped since Jaron Lanier coined the term "Virtual Reality" in the early 1 980s,
the hardware never lived up to its expectations. But that's about to change, as powerful newVR machines are heading for your home

Entire

Produced in the United States of America.

NEXT Generation shares editorial with, ar

has lately been dandying around under the
name of EDGE. So, welcome aboard Chris
Charla. Please don't be too bizarre."He
ain't got no boot" (aka The Bomberman
Song) — our tip for the top. By the way, d
we mention Melody Stephenson?

Saturn: Sega's battle plan

Saturn has quickly gained a reputation amongst game developers as being a tough machine to work with. But it is also acknowledged
that the potential exists within Saturn to surprise its critics. A NEXT Generation report from the developm

introducing

News

And so the waiting ends: Sony PlayStation Launches • 3DO drops in price, but is it enough?
The Tokyo Toy Show report • Commodore's Amiga: a brave new start? • Arcadia: coin-op ne

Alphas: 11 game previews

Destruction Derby from Reflections pushes the PlayStation further than ever before • 32-bit
Sports games, a comprehensive round-up of next season's blockbusters • Plus Rebel Assault 2

talking

So which 32-bit system is
Electronic Arts betting on?

EA's Bing Gordan picks his winners of the 32-bit n

News

The latest news from the videogaming world:

26 Joyriding (gaming online)

27 Arcadia (inside the coin-op industry)
29 Generator (game development news)

32 subscribing

Save time and cash

Smart readers make sure that they save cash and
guarantee their copy of the worlds best game mag

36 ng special

Reality Check: the future of VR

As the vaporware of the 1 980s turns into the
hardware of the 1 990s, it's time for a reality check

48 ng hardware

Saturn: Sega's plan of attack

Sega Saturn is a tough machine to work with. Very
tough. So how is Sega ensuring that its full potential
is realized and the games continue to improve?

57 ng software

Alphas: 11 game previews

The future of interactive entertainment is right here:
Destruction Derby (PlayStation), WarHawk
(PlayStation), Urban Decoy (PlayStation), Solar Eclipse
(Saturn), Thunderhawk 2 (Saturn), Twisted Metal
(PlayStation), The Darkening (PC), Rebel Assault 2 (PC),
Yoshi's Island (Super NES) and Virtue Cop (Saturn)

88 rating

Finals: 47 new game reviews

Looking to buy a new game? Trying to decide which
system has the best software line-up? Here's your
guide, featuring; Greatest Nine Boseboll (Saturn), &a\h
(3DO),F/ipOut! (Jaguar), Morio Smash (Virtual Boy),
Street Hoop (Neo-Geo), Virtual Pool (PC), Dorfc Forces
(Macintosh), Chrono Trigger (Super NES), Tekken 2
(Arcade), and Cybersled (PlayStation)

117

corresponding

Letters

Your means of communicating to a nation. Write us
a letter, we print it. Instant respect. No, really

110

now hiring

The largest recruitment advertising section in the
business. Your shot at a dream job starts here

119

ending

Finals: 47 game reviews

Next month...

NEXT Generation #10 hits the newsstands o
September 19. Check out what's inside today

Every new game reviewed and rated — on all platforms. It's your definitive guide of the best and
the worst of the month's releases, reviewed and rated by the best in the business

«$!

IN TODAY'S WAR BE
IT APPEARS ONE SIDE HAS

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jEBOW — FIEJ3 BY Tekken. More brutality for your buck.

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***

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that 17

TUEEN 32-BIT SYSTEMS,
GAINED AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE

lllCICbfllnlS i 1*111(1 1

UE WERE JUST I1AKING GAMES.

MDCiRAClR

Bing Gordan and Trip Hawkins formed Electronic Arts back in 1982. While
Trip i to found The 3D0 Company, Bing went on to be digitized and .

feature Kommentator in John Madden Football. Only joking, Bing — "\

EA is nost powerful game developer in the world, and when EA makes

ople take notice. So what everyone wants to know is...

Which

32-t

svstem

bettin

Iet's not be coy. If it wasn't for John
Madden Football, NHL Hockey, Road
Rash, Desert Strike, PGA Tour Golf, and
the rest of EA's almost exclusively
Genesis-based releases, the videogaming world of
1 995 might be a very different place. The Genesis
might never have scaled to the dazzling heights it
occupies today (well, yesterday), Nintendo might
have crushed Sega without a struggle and the
Saturn might never have been released.

The point is that EA has to decide which game
system it's going to support in the 32-bit age.
Whereas gamers all gamble when they spend
$400 on a new games system that hopefully will
still be around in years to come, when it comes to
picking what systems to develop for, EA has to
take a gamble worth millions of dollars.

So NEXT Generation met with Bing
Gordan, EA's Vice President of EA Studio, to ask,
"Who's it going to be?"

Backing the PlayStation?

NG: Looking at the 32-bit product lineup with
the exception of Psychic Detective, all the games
are derivatives and descendants of old 16-bit
games. Is this is a sign of EA growing lazy?

Bing: No, no — it's just a timing issue. The issue

that 'it all looks like sequels of

existing properties,' well, we did

the same thing with Sega

Genesis. We shipped between

seven and nine Sega Genesis

games in the first year, and no

other third party shipped more

than one. But every one of those

titles had preexisted on Amiga or

C64 or the PC.

But there's a race to get quality product out,
and for something like Wing Commander, when
you spend millions on movie footage, it should be
no surprise that the versions on every CD system
are going to look the same. You get your killer
apps, new killer apps, in the second year,
NG: Another cursory glance at EA's current
release schedule would suggest that PlayStation is
your favored machine. Is that a fair conclusion?
Bing: At E 3 , we showed 10 things on PlayStation,
only a handful of things on Saturn, a dozen things
on PC, 7 or 8 things on 3DO. and that's a fair
assessment of how our product line is going to
look — with perhaps more PC products {they
can be finished four to six weeks later to make
this same ship date).

There will be more 1 6-bit titles also, but we
didn't want to confuse the issue.
NG: So PlayStation is featuring more
prominently than Saturn in EA's plans?
Bing: Yes, and there are several reasons for it
The first is that EA people have been Sony
consumers for a long time. If anybody can take a
consumer brand and expand the interactive

lltW 5!7 till

entertainment market, our emotional belief is that
Sony can do it. Sega has done a great job of
adding hip excitement to the business and taking
it beyond early adolescents and adding a whole
new element of possibility to the mass market.
But a lot of us believe that Sony is the brand
name that can work wonders.
NG: You're implying that the industry needs
something to help it grow?

Bing: Since our founding in 1 982, we have always
believed that there has been a manifest destiny for
interactive entertainment to be every bit as big as
any of the entertainment media businesses — and
we are constantly looking for ways to help it get
there. Our goal is to be one of the leading
factors in making it happen.

We believe that a brand and a company like
Sony — if committed, and if with successful
execution — is a message to people who should
be consumers but haven't got the bug yet, to start
taking notice of what's happening in the industry.

The other reason we have for making more
PlayStation titles is that we have had more rapid
progress developing for the PlayStation. It turns
out that with Sony's console, it's been easier for
us to take 3DO and PC games and port them to
the PlayStation than to port them to the Saturn

— especially with the 3D stuff.
NG: Are you confident that
Sony knows what it is doing?
Bing: Yeah. It knows what it's
doing. Usually, software
companies and hardware
companies don't really get along

— it's like creative people and
finance people. There are
exceptions, but generally, when

push comes to shove, there always seems to be
some communications problems.

EA is pretty sensitive to seeing hypocrisies, or
at least inconsistencies, in hardware claims.
Hardware companies always extend reality on
installed base, they almost always extend reality
on entry price, they always extend reality on

It's time to make a choice. EA swears to its principle
of Setting into new systems "early and deep," but
which system will It chose In the 32-bit era?

talking

"It's hard to
argue that in
Japan
Nintendo
won't be one
of the leaders
no matter
what they do.
It's hard to
argue, that
Sega won't be
one of the
leaders in the
US and in
Europe. It's
hard to
imagine
Microsoft and
Intel won't be
a leader in
the US"

development systems. But Sony — whether this
is good or not — has been fairly consistent from
day one, and that's wonderful for a software
company like EA.

NG: So do you believe PlayStation will dominate!
Bing: We think that there will probably be three
major interactive entertainment architectures in
each of the three major territories [the US, Japan,
and Europe]. We wish that they would be the
same three architectures, but, unfortunately, this
probably won't be the case.

It's hard to argue, for instance, that in Japan,
Nintendo won't be one of the leaders no matter
what it does. It's hard to argue that Sega won't
be one of the leaders in the US — and in Europe
— no matter what it does. It's hard to imagine
that Microsoft and Intel won't be leaders in the
US, no matter what they do. And Matsushita
[3DO] has the same kind of market power in
Japan that Microsoft has in the
States.

So while we're backing Sony,
it's still hard for us to imagine
not having a strategic relationship
with a key Sega platform —
we've built a base of 10 million
loyal Sega-owning customers and
we feel pretty loyal to them.
NG: So you don't see one
machine dominating?

Bing: The only way I could see that happening is
if Sony, Sega, Nintendo, or Panasonic come out
with a knock-out punch.

NG: What would you view as a knockout punch
then, 3DO's M2?

Bing: A knock-out punch would be Sony at $199
and Sega staying at $399. But Sega — Mr.
Nakayama, knows his market. He's not going to
accept giving up half his loyal Sega customers just
to save $100 bucks per machine. Because his 32-
bit CD business is only going to last five years
max, maybe four years. If he comes out of that
with a 15% share of the market instead of the
50% he had going into it, it's going to be incredibly

Bing Gordan handled the marketing of all EA's games
throughout Trip Hawkins' reign at EA. He then moved to
head up EA Studio. "Now he's the main man," say staff

expensive to get back.

So I don't think we will see a knock-out
punch. At least a couple of companies are going
to protect their long-term evaluation and pay
whatever it takes to survive.
NG: How does the PC feature in EA's plan over
the next few years?

Bing: I think PC will be the number one
entertainment interactive for the next three years.
The PC has this unfair advantage because with it
people think that $2,000 is cheaper than $300.
After you get above $ 1 00, a purchase has to go
through an analytical process — for most
households. Once you get to that analytical
process, the PC seems to be a safer bet. It's like
this big insurance policy — because it's a personal
computer, it seems to double the magic. And the
other hidden asset of the Intel/MicroSoft alliance
is the Internet. The Internet is coming on so fast

that where it's going to go is

unpredictable.

The 3DO Experience

NG: Hypothetjcalr/, do you think
that Sega's Genesis could have
succeeded without EA's support
four years ago?
Bing: I don't think that Sega
would have gotten a 50% market
share without us, but it would have gotten at least
10%.

But without EA, particularly EA Sport's lineup,
I think Sega would have been hard pressed to be
more than simply a technology leader.
NG: Conjecture aside, what EA's backing of
Genesis proved was that the supply of quality
games from a company such as EA is a
tremendous boost — rf not essential — to a new
system's success. How do you decide which
system to back? It sure is one hell of a gamble...
Bing: Your notion that I'm a gambling man, or
that EA's a gambling company, comes from our
experience that we are successful when we take
an early and deep position on an architecture.
And we are really successful when that
architecture turns out to be a market leader.
Wishy-washy strategies don't lead to great success.
NG: The strategy you outlined: the business of
getting in fast and deep also runs the risk of you
getting your fingers burned every now and then.
Bing: As for getting burned, we have never lost
money on that strategy.
NG: So 3DO has been profitable for EA?
Bing: The 3DO operating business has been
lightly profitable for us. On the whole, because
of our equity arrangement with 3DO, the strategy
has been wildly profitable.

It's also enabling us to get started in Japan. It
gives our distribution people in Japan a leadership
product line to sell on a format that's meaningful.

fgf&ing

not unlike the way that we launched in Europe
with C64 tapes and disks. It was an uphill slog, but
we had a product line that people wanted on a
platform that was viable.

NG: And, of course, it enabled you to start work
on designing 32-bit games early.
Bing: Our strategy on 3DO has been to build
products that would be wildly successful if 3DO
got the market share it hoped for, and successful if
other CD-based 32-bit architectures turned out
to have similarities to 3DO [in which the games
can be ported to that system]. So the success of
our investment in 3DO, other than the equity
relationship, mostly has not been earned out yet.

Also, a major goal for us with 3DO was to get
the whole industry
onto a TV-based,
advanced electronic
CD system earlier
than we thought Sega
and Nintendo would
get there on their
own. I think 3DO
probably allowed
companies like EA to
deliver advanced, CD,
TV-based products to customers two years earlier
than would have happened otherwise.
NG; Do you miss Trip Hawkins?
Bing: I still see Trip regularly, and he's one of
my best friends.

NG: Does EA miss Trip Hawkins?
Bing: Let's see. Trip is one of the few people in
the industry who combines business savvy with
creative product savvy. There just aren't many
people who can cover the whole thing. Any
company would be happy to have him. Trip is a
great creative leader and strategic visionary.
NG: Were you ever personally a believer In the
whole 3DO vision?

Bing: Um. I was.,, and I am... I believe that
3DO was a great effort at pushing the industry
along. I believe that 3DO — two years from now
— is going to be viewed as one of the things that
has caused the industry to grow through the '90s.

What always seemed risky was trying to build
an alliance where the hardware company, the
architecture company, and the studios are in three
different places. The prospect of trying to raise
$75 million or $100 million to make that happen
seemed like an impossibly uphill task. On the
other hand, I've seen Trip backed into a lot of
corners in the past 18 years and he's surprised me
several times in the past. So I think the business
achievement of getting 3DO to where it is
today... well, it still kind of blows my mind.

I told him at the start, I thought he had only a
1 0% chance of getting to the point where even the
technology worked. And that was even knowing
Trip. The thing about Trip is that if he believes that
it's only a 10% chance, then what he does is

double his efforts.

NG: What was Trip's motivation?

Bing: Trip was hoping that he could hit a market

window early enough that 3DO could become the
standard and all the other hardware companies
would adopt it. Trip has been saying since 1980
that our industry needs one architectural standard
and, you know, that always seemed like a risky
vision. Personal relationships being what they are,
it's hard to imagine this industry working that way.

^ And, of course, a

I $700 price point was

never part of the

vision.

EA and
Sports

NG: DoeiEA's
emphasis on sports
tides affect your
decision of which new
system to support, PlayStation or Saturn?
Bing: For us specifically, with our sports games,
we've got a choice of getting to the PlayStation
early where we don't believe there will be much
competition or trying to get to the Saturn five
minutes before Sega Sports does (Sega is our
leading competitor in the sports sector).

Ideally, of course, we'd like to do both. I'd like
to not give Sega a chance to catch up with us in
football, hockey, soccer, and golf, and I'd like to
catch up with them with baseball.
NG: Has the fact that EA and Sega are the two
biggest sports game manufacturers affected your
relationship with them at all?
Bing: Absolutely. It's something we've had to
work on from the beginning. At least with Sega, it
seems that the competition with them is fair and
above board. Sega doesn't take advantage of its
extra profitability — being a licenser — to
practice dumping [forcing EA out of the market
with artificially low-priced Sega cartridges]. Sega
basically out-spends us at marketing at a ratio of
three to one, and that feels unfair because we
know what it is doing — Sega is justifying the
expenditure because it also sells more hardware
— and we hate it, but actually it is fair. Just like
it's fair for us to put games like Madden on
competitive machines. That's just business.

Sure, there's an opportunity for Sega to take
advantage of us because of the advance knowledge
of our games. There's a chance to see what our
features are and then change their own games —
and we were paranoid about that early on. But
my sense is Sega hasn't abused that opportunity.
NG: Will the sports genre remain a large part of
EA's core business?

Bing: Yes, for several reasons. First, we have
amassed a group of people who are avid sports
freaks. Someone like Steve Cartwright who was a

"Some day I'm
going to die,
and I'd really
like to have
lived some
alternative
lives, created
for me by
world-class
creative
people,
before I go.
That way I
won't be so
pissed off
about dying"

talking

Electronic Arts has long been In battle with Acclaim
for the position of the world's most successful
game producer. Only Sega and Nintendo are bigger

"The way the
interactive
entertainment
industry
grows is to go
out and find
people who
have a non-
interactive
media
application
and then find
a way to
make it
interactive"

hall-of-fame game designer way
back in the Activision days, who
•> is also an avid golfer, has ported
PGA to almost every platform
and gets to make a competitive
upgrade every year. He thinks
it's cool.

A word to
EA's rivals

NG: Is EA stock a good one
to buy right now?

Bing: I can't comment on
that... but I haven't sold any in
a while. I think EA is going to
have more market share in five
years than we have right now.
I think the advanced CD
generation will be very kind to us. I think having
a multiplicity of brands, and a cross-pollinating
federation of studios is the best model for a
business like ours.

For Peter Molyneux [Bullfrog], Don Mattrick
[EA Canada], Richard Hilleman [head of EA's
Entertainment Division], Richard Gariott [Origin]
and Scott Orr [producer for EA], to be able to
get on the phone and
get on video
conference and show
off each others'
products and talk
about an issue and
share technology —
there's an advantage
that no

one else has, and no
one else is likely to
get. It's not the kind

of average thing that can be easily pulled off in a
world of big and fragile egos.
NG: Aren't you worried about the legions
of competitor game developers with their
own sports games?

Bing: Right, an awful lot of our competitors who
saw what we did with 16-bit are now saying that
sports is now the key battlefield for advanced
CD, and I tell them directly, I say that I think these
guys are missing the boat.

There are other categories that will be key
battlefields. I would advise them to explore such
growth areas as interactive movies and 3D games.
NG: On that subject, what Is your definition of
an interactive movie?

Bing: I think 'interactive movies' is the name of a
category. It's whatever product that is going to
be required to get people who are film buffs to
start buying interactive software. It's the 18- to
34-year-olds who are seeing six to eight movies a
year and not playing videogames. An interactive
movie will be whatever products these
consumers see that starts taking advantage of the

quality of drama and the personification of actors,
with some of the presentation of Hollywood.

People who want to play a videogame, flying
around and shooting aliens, they know that this
game already exists. That's the action component
we're all familiar with. The charm of a game like
Psychic Detective [EA's forthcoming interactive
movie], however, is in its content — which is
different from what has been available — not so
much in the mechanics of the interaction.
NG: How do you see this type of game evolving?
Bing: I think it will be five years before we have
working models of how often people have to push
a button to make an enjoyable interactive movie.
In Hollywood, they now have worked out how
long you can prolong adrenaline rushes in a movie
before you have a break, or how much emotional
content you need to make a movie satisfying.

We'll eventually be able to work out a similar
frequency of button clicks in order to make the
interactive movie a rewarding experience.
NG: So why would you encourage your
competitors to explore this type of game In 1995?
Bing: The way the interactive entertainment

industry grows is to
find people who have
a noninteractive
media application
and then find a way
to make it
interactive. The
reason sports were
so big with 16-bit is
because the
technology was
there to provide a satisfying sports simulation.
The technology to provide satisfying mass-
market storytelling and immersive 3D games
hasn't been available before the last year. So now
we have a chance to build a market as big as the
sports market was. So these companies looking
to get into sports are missing an opportunity to
become number one or number two in a new
category and are, instead, merely going to end up
number five in an existing category. If I was on
their boards I would tell them not to do it But,
of course, they think I'm lying to them.
NG: They have a fair point Why should you be
giving them hints?

Bing: Because in years to come I want to be in a
position where I can say that I predicted this.
Often my credibility is more important to me
than economic results. I want this business to
grow. The manifest destiny of this industry is
more important to me than the individual success
of EA. Really. 1 want to live in a world where
entertainment is interactive; I want to live in a
world of choices.

Because some day I'm going to die — and I'd
really like to have lived some alternative
lives, created for me by world-class creative (TiJ

Finally, a REAL flight sim
lop your 3DII System!

The wait (or
a truly great
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Based on the elite
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Harrier squadron, this state-
of-the-art flight and combat
simulator will have your
heart pounding and palms
sweating. This romp through
unfriendly skies delivers the
very best in gaming:

Incredible, pulse-
pounding rock music
soundtrack featuring Mike
Edwards of Jesus Jones.

FLYING NIGHTMARES.
A REAL Bight shn for
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♦ Lightning-fast 3D
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♦ Fly simultaneous missions
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♦ Multiple cockpit views,
plus external and missile
camera angles.

m MARK

Published oy Domark Software Inc. Flying Nightmares:

3DO and the 3DQ legos are trademarks olTtie 3D0 Company.

14!

it,

PARKING VALET,

Imagine driving the wrong way in rush hour traffic, before

catching enough air to make a seagull blush. Is it the L.A.

freeways? No. it's the Sony PlayStation. Introducing

Namco's Ridge Racer. Gut-wrenching first-person views,

«<<< < < *

\it

five different courses and 200+ m.p.h. lap speeds. Only

ihe PlayStation provides racing sc

to check your shorts for skidmarks. One final plug:

Look for Ridge Racer and 50 o'

Mortal Kombat 3 on the PlayStation before Christmas

PlayStation

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PlayStation: Sony's 32-bit machine lands on US shores/p.14 • 3DO: Trip's console drops in price/p.16 • Amiga:
Escom's lays out its new plans/p.18 • Tokyo Toy Show: Omacha spotlights catalog of new games/p.20 • PlayStation
Vs. Saturn: Both consoles' prices drop in Japan/p.22 • Arcadia: Street Fighter Alpha and Batman Forever news/p.27

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Up-to-date analyses, snippets, and worldwide news

The US Sony PlayStation

On September 9,
the world's most
powerful

videogame system
launches in the
US for $299

An extra joypad is a must
buy, as is a memory card
of two (Japanese kids
have been trading saved
games and high scores
on them for months)

has landed

Bn September 9, Sony Computer
Entertainment (SCE) of
America will release the US
version of the PlayStation, heating up
the next generation system wars in
America to a boiling point. The unit
will carry a suggested retail price of
$299 ($100 less than Sega Saturn's
$399 price tag) but will not include
any pack-in game titles.

More than any other aspect of
the release, Sony's offering of at least
17 game titles at launch, with more
than 75 more to follow by the end of
fourth quarter, offers a startling
contrast from the six initial titles and
trickle of subsequent Saturn games
released so far. This is a function of
both Sony not pulling the rug from
under its game developers' feet with a
last-minute change of release date,
and the fact so far PlayStation is the
easier to develop for (see page 48).

The release of Sony's PlayStation
brings to an end Sega Saturn's head
start in its 32-bit race against Sony.
The question, now, isjust how much
Sega's four-month jump gained for
Saturn? Tim Dunley, Sega's self-
proclaimed marketing zealot, believes
that the company's head start makes
all the difference in the world. "It's
very important to show that we are
not only ahead in our marketing, but
that we are also first in consumer's
minds when they think of next
generation systems," he argues. Quite
how 3D0 (having been on sale for two
years) fits into this thinking is for
Dunley and Trip Hawkins to debate.

Sega claims to have shipped
100,000 Saturns to US stores so far, a
number which, while certainly nothing
to be ignored, is far from indicating an
early domination of the next
generation market. 3D0 can claim at
least double that number of installed

US systems, and Sony officials aren't
admitting to losing any sleep over the
issue, as Chip Herman, SCE's VP
Marketing explains: "Historically, the
summer months are slow ones for the
videogame industry. Couple that with
the limited retail distribution with
which Sega has launched Saturn, and
we don't expect the early introduction
of Saturn to affect our success at all."

So the big push toward

the holiday season, the busiest
business period for sales, begins.
Marketing will be the battleground on
which the two companies face off,
each looking to bombard what they
believe to be the target consumer.

Sega plans to continue its
current "right-side-of-the-brain"
strategy that's aimed at the early
adapters in the form of 18 to 34-year-
old males; hoping "that 'sensory'
advertising will stimulate huge demand

The US PlayStation is a
stripped down "lite"
version of the Japanese
original, losing its
S- video output in transit

The question
now at
PlayStation's
release is,
"Just how
much has
Sega's
four-month
jump-start
has given
Saturn?"

break ng

for the product by creating a yearning
for the experience of Sega Saturn,"
(see NG 8). With $50 million to spend
on Saturn marketing, Sega is counting
on the same irreverent humor that
worked so well in building its 16-bit
Genesis-brand awareness to lead
consumers toward Sega Saturn.

Sony refuses to give

exact figures, but inside sources hint
at a 1995 marketing budget of $40
million. While Sony claims to be
targeting a more "cerebral audience,"
early ads would indicate that Sony is
taking a fairly pragmatic approach,
relying on screen shots and big-name

games to draw consumers in. Look for
PlayStation sponsoring the MTV Music
Awards, as well as marketing support
from in-store demonstrations and a
dedicated PlayStation WWW-site.

In Japan, Sony claims to have
sold one million PlayStations since
December 3, while Sega claims to
have sold 1.3 million Saturns since its
introduction on November 23. Quite
what significance these figures have
on the US market is debatable.

What's certain, though, is that
the 32-bit race is closer than anyone
had expected. The only guaranteed
winner is the gameplayer.
And that can't be a bad thing.

PlayStation: The Release Schedule

01 = Jan-Mar; 02 = Apr-Jun; 0.3 = Jul-Sep; Q4 - Oct-Dec

4.T*fr4M«t.

At Launch

HFL Football Konami

Q1'95

Aeon Flui Viacom NewMedia

NFL Game Day Sony Imagesoft

04 '95

NFL Quarterback Club '96 Acclaim

01 '96

Aftershock American Techno;

NHL Face Off Sony Imagesoft

04 '95

Agile Warrior Virgin

At Launch

Ait Combat Nam to

Oft-World Interceptor Crystal Dynamics

04 '95

Alien Virus Vic Toka!

Panier Genera/SSI

04 '95

Aliens ys. Predator Fox Interactive

Parasite Psygnosis

Ql'96

Assault Rigs Psygnosis

Parodius Konami

At Launch

Baltbtazer Lucas Arts

PGA Tour 96 EA

At Launch

Basketball '95 Crystal Dynamics

Planet of the Apes Foi Interactive

01 '97

Batman Forever Acclaim

Porter Serve 3D Tennis Ocean

At Launch

Battle Arena Toshinden SCEA

PowerSport Soccer Psygnosis

Q4'95

BioHaxard Capcom

Primal Rage Time Warner

Q4'95

Blazing Dragons Crystal Dynamics

Project Overkill Konami

Brain Bead 13 fteadySoft

Psychic Defective EA

Q4'95

Buried in Time: Journeyman Project 2 Sanctuary

RaldenSCEA

Ra* Pursuit JVC

TBA

Castlevania: The Bloodletting Konami

Ray man UblSofl

At Launch

Converse Hard Core Virgin

Razor Wing SCEA

04 '95

Cosmic Race Heore*

Ridge Hater SCEA

At Launch

Crime Crackers SC EA

Ripper Take 2

Q4'95

Cyberla Interplay Productions

Rock V Roll Racing Interplay

Q4'95

Cybersled Namco

Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire Koei

Q4'95

O&D Tower of Doom Capcom

S.T.O.R.M. American Softworks

Ql'96

Dark Net American Softworks

Screeming Wheels JVC

TBA

Dark starters Capcom

Sentient Psygnosis

Deadly Stt/esjVC

Shanghai: Triple Threat Actlvision

Q4'95

Defcom 5 Data East

Shellshock U.S. Gold

04 '95

Descent Interplay Productions

Shred fesl EA

Q4'95

Destruction Derby Psygnosis

Silverload Vic Tokai.Inc

Q4'95

Die Hard Trilogy Fos Interactive

Slayer SSI

Q4'95

Dimm & Witt PF Magic

Q4'95

Solar Eclipse Crystal Dynamics

Q4'95

Disc World Psygnosis

Split Realities JVC

04 '95

Don PacAi Atlus Software

TBA

Spot Goes T"o Holly wood Virgin

Q4'95

Double Header Baseball: Signature SerieUateco

04 '95

Starblade Alpha Namco

Q4'95

ESPN Extreme Games Sony Imagesoft

Street Fighter Legends Capcom

Fatal Racing Gremlin

Street Fighter: The Animated Movie Capcom

Fox Hunt Capcom

Street Fighter: The Movie Capcom

Q4'95

Frank Thomas 'Big Hurt' Baseball Acclaim

Syndicate Wars EA

04 '95

Freelancer 2120 American Softworks

Team 47 Goman 47 Tek

Q4'95

G-Pollce Psygnosis

Tel< ken Namco

Q4'95

The Ulh Hour Virgin

Q4'95

Gunners Heaten SCEA

The Big Bass World Championship Hot-B USA

Q4'95

Harbinger Mindscape

The Lost Vikings II interplay

04 '95

Hardball 5 Accolade

77j e Raven Project Mindscape

Ql'96

Hardball 5 Sport Accolade

Fne TO*. Pom Interactive

Ql'96

Fai

Theme Park EA

At Launch

Incredible Toons Capcom

Thunder Hawk U.S. Gold

04 '95

Independence Day Fo< Interactive

Top Gun: "Flreat Will'' Spectrum HoloByte

Ql'96

International Superstar Soccer 2 Konami

Total Eclipse Crystal Dynamics

Johnny Mnemonic Sony Imagesoft

twitted Metal Sony Imagesoft

Q4'95

Jumping Flash SCEA

V Max Mindscape

Ql'96

Kileak: The DHA Imperative SCEA

Velocity PF Magic

Q4'95

Kino's Field SCEA

Virtuoso American Technos

Q4'95

Kraiy Iran Psygnosis

Virus Sony Imagesoft

Q4'95

Legacy of Jfaui Crystal Dynamics

Warhammer Mindscape

Q4'95

Lemmings 3D Psygnosis

Warhawk Sony Imagesoft

Q4'95

Loaded Gremlin

Waterworld Interplay

Mag Zone Trlmark

Wing Commander HI: Heart of the Tiger EA

Q4'95

MLBPA Baseball Konami

Wipeout Psygnosis

Q4'95

Mortal Kombatll Acclaim

WWF Wrestlemania Acclaim

At Launch

Mortal Kombat III SC E A

X-Men: Children of the Atom Capcom

Myst Psygnosis

20 OP Viacom New Media

Q4'95

NBA Jam Tournament Edition Acclaim

3D Baseball '95 Crystal Dynamics

04 '95

NBA: Sire 'n' Go Konami

4x4 Gears 'n' fiufs American Softworks

Ql'96

NBA : In the Zone Konami

Ql'96

What is it?

The I 984 commercial
of this new product
proved to be one of the
best remembered ads
of all times aired during
Super Bowl XVIII. The
slogan for this once-
used product was "For
the Rest of Us."

17 Games At
Launch

Sega's surprise release of
Saturn on May 11 was
executed at the cost of
having only six games
available at launch, while
PlayStation boasts at
least 17 titles immediately
available, and (as an
inevitable symptom of
Sony's reliance on third
party development) they
are of variable shapes,
sizes, and quality.

SCE has made an
effort to mix up the game
styles a little with 3 PC
conversions, 5 arcade
conversions, 3 sports
games, 2 original titles,
and 4 upgrades of exiting
games. If you're
wondering where the
other "big names" are
[Mortal Kombat 3,
Tekken, etc.), it's because
Sony hopes to trickle out
the blockbusters evenly
over the next few months.
Sony's definition of
"blockbuster" may not be
the same as the
discerning gamer's,
however, so check the
release schedule for your
personal favorites.

break ng

3D0 stays in

A $100 price cut
and rumors of a
looming deal with
Sega keeps 3D0 in

the spotlight

the 32-bit race

Bundled packages with
FIFA International Soccer
(top), Gex (middle), and
Shock Wave (bottom)
are all new incentives to
buy a $299 3DO

Both of 3D0's US hardware
manufacturers recently
engineered a price drop of their
systems to $299. GoldStar's 3D0
Interactive Multiplayer now comes
bundled with EA's FIFA International
Soccer and ShockWave, while the
Panasonic FZ-10 comes with Crystal
Dynamic's Gex included. While this
currently makes both machines $100
dollars less expensive than the Saturn,
according to sources inside 3DO, the
price could drop a further $50 to just
$249 come PlayStation's $299 launch
on September 9.

The price drop would seem

to be having the right effect: 3D0 is
outselling Saturn by a narrow margin
at Electronics Boutique, Babbages,
and Software Etc, during Sega's
crucial four-month lead over
PlayStation. "Our sales have gone up
since Saturn came out," says Carrie
Holder of 3DO. "Sega's Saturn gets

them into the store, and we're $100
cheaper," she gleefully concludes.

Still, if internal sources at 3D0
can be believed, all this competition
may be for naught. "Most 3D0
employees look at Sega as someone
who is close to marrying into the
family," says Rick Reynolds of 3D0,
referring to persistent rumors that 3D0
is close to clinching a licensing deal
with Sega regarding its M2 add-on
(NG 6). Negotiations are reportedly
being carried out at the highest levels
in Japan, and while sources at Sega of
America are quick to crush all talk of
such sleeping with the enemy,
countless contacts at 3DO have (while
remaining steadfastly off the record)
refused to deny them.

It's hard to see any obvious,
mutually beneficial reasons for Sega
and 3DO to jump into bed — but that
hasn't stopped the rumor-mills from
churning. Possible motivations abound.
First, Sega could be seeking to license

"Our sales
have gone up
since Saturn
came out.
Saturn gets
them into the
store, and
we're $100
cheaper"

3DO'S 64-bit M2

technology exists In the
labs, but controversial
rumors load to the
question, "What form will
it roach game players?"

breaking

Both Panasonic's FZ-10
3D0 Player (above) and
Goldstar's Interactive
MultiP layer can be
purchased for just $299

M2 hardware as
a power-booster
for its Saturn.
(Unlikely; too
complex a
hardware issue.
And besides,
why turn to
3D0?).

Second, The
3D0 Company is
in financial
trouble; 3D0's
1995's net loss totaled $46.3 million,
and it has been widely reported that
the company needs an injection of $20
million "from somewhere" to survive
until 1996. Hence, it may be forced to
make a bargain-basement deal of M2's

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technology, and to make an offer Sega
just can't refuse. (Possible.)

Third, Sega and 3D0 are joining
forces to fight the 32-bit battle against
Nintendo and Sony. (Very unlikely.)

Fourth, Sega is seeking to single-
handedly remove a major competitor
from the marketplace — by buying it.
(In which case it's probably fair to say
that both Nintendo and Sony owe Tom
Kalinske a beer).

Fifth, Sega is seeking to license
M2 for its own arcade hardware.
(Unlikely; Sega has its own Saturn-
compatible ST-V arcade board and the
high-end, Martin Marietta custom
hardware used by AM2 and AM3.)

Last, the whole story is a blatant
fabrication on the part of 3D0 in
attempt to boost its stock price and
steal some of Sega's and Sony's
launch hype. (One for the cynics.)

In any event, software

development for M2 is continuing at a
healthy if not breakneck pace, with
several big-name developers such as
Interplay and Take 2 Interactive
working on M2 exclusive titles (more
next month). How 3D0 sales will grow
as a result of the price cut (in NG 7 it
was argued that 3D0 really needs to
reach $199 or $249 — and
fast) only time will tell. (Ji3

Data

S500 million

Change in Silic
Graphics stock in t
past month: +$4/share

Change in applied

marketing campaign
expense for Mortal

104,000 pixels
(428x244)

polygons/ second

' ility of Sega

Less than S2/ tiisc
nputing

breaking

Sony vs Sega: the

war continues

As PlayStation
launches in the
US, Sega and
Sony continue the
battle for Japan
and Europe

Virtua

Fighter

Remix

Currently wowing gamers
in Japan, and scheduled
for US release soon, is
Virtua Fighter Remix.
Essentially the same game
as the original VF, Remix
features reworked texture
maps and animation
routines, effectively
removing all the glitches
from the original AM2
conversion. The overall
effect of the new version
is outstanding — and is
fine testament to the
theory that Saturn has yet
to show only a fraction of
its full potential.

SARAH

4#».*..

Virtua Fighter Remix —
same game but vastly
improved visuals

■ : "v s all US eyes remain fixed on
1 ■ the September 9 launch of
PlayStation, the battle between
Sega and Sony continues apace around
the globe. The war that started in
Japan prior to the holiday season 1994
has given no indication of easing up,
and the battle for the videogaming
hearts and minds of European gamers
has only just begun, with Sega once
again stealing a head start over Sony in
the race to get its machine out first.
In Japan, Sony introduced a new
PlayStation on July 21 — the SCPH
3000 — priced at ¥29,800 ($320).
Designed as a "popular" model, it lacks
the S-video output of the original,
therefore reducing production costs,
but otherwise it's identical to the
original. This move not only results in
cheaper manufacturing costs for Sony,
but cunningly also effectively dodges
the "dumping" issue that clouded news
of the machine's US launch at $299.
Sam Tramiel in NG 7 brought attention
to the fact that selling the same
hardware at two different prices in two
different countries may infringe ITC
trading rules. But by selling the new
PlayStation at the equivalent of $320,
there's no longer a significant price
difference — and no dumping problem.

But before the "popular"
PlayStation hit the streets, Sega's
cheaper Saturn was released. As of
June 16, the Saturn is on sale for just
¥34,800 — ¥10,000 less than the
original launch price. Although still $75
more expensive than the PlayStation,
the new Saturn pack does come
bundled with a (nearly) new game: the
curiously low-key Virtua Fighter Remix.

Ill ElirOpe, potentially more
significant than any of the price
tinkering by Sony or Sega was the
announcement of a strategic alliance
between Sony Computer Entertainment
and Namco. As a result of the deal,
estimated to be worth $100 million,
Namco has given SCE exclusive
distribution rights to all its PlayStation
software in Europe, and the arcade
giant will continue to furnish Sony with
PlayStation originals and conversions of
its future coin-ops. Another brand-

The celebratory "one million sold" Saturn
pack (above) conies with VF Remix. The US
Saturn Is already on sale (right)

strengthening move from Sony is the
PlayStation Club, due to start this
September in Japan. For an annual fee
of ¥5800 ($63), members will receive
regular "PlayStation Preview"
8 cm (3 1/8 inch)

.*fc j ) black discs,

^■0B featuring previews,

playable demos, and other
news. Current Japanese
PlayStation owners can
apply for free preview discs
for a limited period, "to express
thanks to those consumers who have
purchased PlayStations in the fT*fi
last six months." 4^5

What's next?

"Bombs like a Stealth.
Maneuvers like an F-16.

Looks like a rug."

break ng

Big players show

This year, Omacha
once again
showcased new
videogames

at Tokyo Toy Expo

The Japanese toy trade's
annual bash is a shop
window for the
videogame industry

he annual Tokyo Toy Show (also
known as the Omacha show) is
the main event for Japanese toy
sellers and manufacturers. Every year,
the importance of the videogames
sector increases; this time just about

lajor hardware and software
company was represented (except for
Nintendo, which stages the Shoshinkai
show in November, and Konami, which
was apparently unable to attend
because of the Kobe earthquake).
Despite the lack of any major
hardware announcements, a number of
games attracted attention, chiefly
Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn, which
was making its first public appearance
in demo form and looked stunning (see
pages 48-53 for more details). The
Saturn also played host to sequels to
Clockwork Knight and Sega's action
RPG Legend OfThor, and several coin-
op conversions showed up, too: Sega's
upgrade of Hang On (due in September)
looks promising, with decent texture-
mapped visuals; Time Warner's Race
Drivin' adds texture mapping to its
crusty {not to mention almost
unplayable) Atari Games original; and
Taito showed early versions of coin-op
shooters Darius Gaiden and Ray Force.
Finally, there was Guardian Heroes on
Saturn, a fighting game with huge

The main draw for gamers at the Tokyo Toy
Show was an exceptionally smooth rolling
demo of the Saturn's Virtua Fighter 2,
developed by Sega's AM2 team

scalable sprites which has the
inevitable looks of a standard Neo-Geo
fighter with RPG elements.

The PlayStation countered with
Taito duo Ray Tracer {a fighting man's
Ridge Racer) and Zeitgeist, a Starblade-
influenced shooter. Street Fighter the
Movie, Capcom USA's Saturn and
PlayStation fighter of the Street Fighter

Selected software from the show (from top left, clockwise): a heli sim from Game Arts (Saturn); Taito's Chase HQ-style Ray Tracer (PlayStation); Hudson
Soft's Neo-Geo debut, Far East Of Eden (a fighter, no less); World Advanced War (Saturn); Takara's second PlayStation title, ChoroQ, featuring mini-car racing;
the sequel to Legend Of Thor (Saturn); Namco's PlayStation soccer game; and Sega's Hang On GP '95 (Saturn)

break ng

Bandai gave its
remodeled Apple-derived
Pippin its first mediocre
outing at the show

Japanese titles
now playing

¥1,000= $10.79 (al

Riglord Saga
(Sega} ¥5800
Professional Baseball
(Konami) ¥5800
Turning Ball World
(Tscno Satt)
Hotblooded Family
(Tecna Soft)
Pepnerouchau's Big
Adventure
(Sega)¥<800

(Konami) ¥5600
Magic Knight Ray Earth
(Sena) ¥4800

Arc The Lad
(SCE) (5800
Ace Combat
(Namco) ¥5800
Aquanaut's Holiday
(Artdink)
Rayman
(UBI Soft] ¥5800

ie Soldier Siindam

movie with digitized actors, was
available for diehard Street
Fighter II fans to try out, and also on
show was Psygnosis' latest version of
Capcom's Vampire (otherwise
known as Darkstalkers) .

As well as 32-bit games, Capcom
exhibited a healthy number of 16-bit
Super Famicom titles — among them
Mickey And Donald's Magical
Adventure, Rockman X3, and Final
Fight 3 — but they were all derivative
sequels of derivative sequels.

the opportunity
to unveil its totally remodeled Pippin
Power Player at
the show. Such
is the
mportance
attached to Pippin
by Bandai that a
massive stand
was devoted to
the Apple Macintosh-based machine.
The styling of the Pippin is now much
more attractive than the plain black
box and keyboard Bandai showed at
Milia '95 in Cannes, France — and
much more like an ordinary Mac.
Indeed, anyone not aware of the Power
Player's history would have been
forgiven for assuming that Apple was
bringing out a new Macintosh.

The basic Pippin unit, complete
with CD-ROM drive, is designed to form
the heart of a multimedia system with
which a keyboard, modem, mouse, and
monitor can be added. Other Pippin
peripherals include ajoypad with a
built-in trackball and a floppy-disk drive
that fits underneath the base console.
Although finished hardware was
present, there was a distinct lack of
quality software — no big developers
displayed Pippin games, and Bandai
itself had nothing that showed what
Pippin could do or indicated that it
could reach beyond Apple's fT* - ?

historically small game audience. UVH

(Ban

(Konami) ¥5800

Night Striker

(Ving) ¥6400

V-Tennis

(Tonkin House)

Philosoma

(SCE) ¥5800

King's Field 2

(From Software) ¥6300

Essential

I reading

Capcom offered a range of predictable
32-bit games and also kept the SFC flame
alive with a host of sequels

The Good, The Bad, and the Bogus:
Nathan Lockard's Complete Guide
to Video Games

Nathan Lockard
Publisher: Adventure Press
Release Date: Available now
Pages: 266

This is a good thing. A well-researched,
energetically thorough review guide on
videogames for parents and kids like this
couldn't have been done so well by anyone
above 20 (NEXT Generation staff excepted,
of course) And that's why Nathan Lockard, a
16-year-old high school junior is the smiling author.

Containing 373 Super NES, 361 Genesis, and 47 Sega CD
reviews (but none on 3DO, Saturn, PlayStation, Jaguar), this guide
amasses 781 total reviews, each broken down into game categories
(RPG, action, etc), age groups, and violence ratings. The ratings average
about 100 words per game, and describe the game concept, controls,
and graphics. You'll find obscurities like Truxton, Death Duel, and
Target Earth, but not Mega Twins or Test Drive 2.

An eight year old could read this book, and that's the idea. It's
accessible. However, the ratings, which are always the subject of
controversy and disagreement, range from completely wrong to
repressingly conservative; and, despite this, The Good, the Bad, and the
Bogus still manages to be a good general guide for the ignorant.

The History of Computers: A Family guide of
Computer Genealogy

Les Freed

Publisher: Ziff-Davis Press
Release Date: Available now
Pages: 153

Everyone needs a book like this — on their
coffee table, that is. It's designed in a wide
photographic format, it's full of cool, rare
photographs, and reads fairly easily.
While not abnormally dense with
information, The History of Computers conveys most of the important
achievements, breakthroughs, and periods of transition in the history of
computers, like Charles Babbage's Difference and Analytical Engines;
The Kelvin Tide Predictor; The Jacquard Loom; the Remington
UNIVAC-1; entire chapters dedicated to both the IBM Personal
Computer and the Apple, finishing off with CD-ROM and Windows
technology. History doesn't have in its index, for instance, the Abacus,
which is really the first man-made computational device, but it does, on
the other hand explain important things, like how a modem works.

Unfortunately, History will be out of date soon. This is not the
publishers fault per say, but is the inevitable dilemma of a society bent
on technological breakthroughs. The newest breakthroughs in
technology, even within the last couple years, aren't up to date.

breaking

Escom reveals the

The purchaser of
Commodore
announces its
intentions

Amiga's future

Two of the naw machines
displayed by Escom at its
Frankfurt, Germany-press
conference: the sleek
green A4000T (above) and
a Commodore-branded PC
in mock-up form

B scorn, the company which in
April became the new owner of
the Commodore brand, held a
press conference on this spring to
outline its strategy for the Commodore
technology. NEXT Generation was
among 60 representatives from
distributors, hardware manufacturers,
software publishers, and the European
press who attended the ParkHotel,
Wiesenhuttenplatz, Frankfurt, to hear
Escom's future plans.

Escom will separate Commodore
and the Amiga, with Commodore
branding the company's Pentium PCs
and the Amiga falling under the
control of Amiga Technologies GmbH,
a new Escom subsidiary.

Petro Tyschtschenko, general
manager of Amiga Technologies GmbH,
provided details of Escom's ambitions
for the Amiga. In the long term, the
firm sees it as the basis for high-end
graphic workstations, home
multimedia machines, and set-top
interactive TV units, but in the short
term there seem to be plenty of ideas
for the existing Amiga range.

"We see in the Amiga the key to
multimedia technologies of the future,"
stated Manfred Schmitt, founder and
chairman of Escom. He also praised
the machine's "still unmatched
multitasking ability" and claimed the
firm had been inundated with
messages of support from its "still-
strong" and loyal base of Amiga users.
Production of the top-of-t he-range

A4000T will commence this month,
with Escom claiming that 20,000-
30,000 have already been presold into
retail (Commodore International only
ever produced 1,000 of these powerful
machines). Remodeled as a mini-tower
with a minimalist light-green design,
It's far more stylish than its previous
incarnation. Meanwhile, production of
both restyled A1200 units and CD32
units will also be restarted.

Escom also revealed that every
Amiga will now come with Scala
MM300, a multimedia presentation
program, bundled free in a further
indication of its multimedia ambitions.

NeW AlTligaS are also
promised, the first of which will be a
68030-based A1200 — the newly
named A1300. As a result of Escom's
close relationship with Motorola, the
German company will be first in line for
the new 68060 chips, which will be
used in a new A4000. A new Amiga
chipset is well into development, but
Escom refused to release any details.
Another Amiga-related development
under consideration at Escom is a
PowerPC version of the machine.

And the Amiga is headed for a
new market: China. The Tianjin Family-
Used Multimedia Company, which
currently has 80 per cent of the
computer game sector in the People's
Republic, will build its own low-end
Amigas and Commodore 64s for the
burgeoning Chinese home market. The
world-conquering C64 could
yet rise again.

In the long
term, Escom
sees the
Amiga as the
basis for
home

multimedia
machines,
set-top
interactive
TV units, and
high-end
graphic
workstations.
There are
also plenty
of ideas for
the existing
Amiga range

Escom intends to divorce the Commodore name from the Amiga brand and
use it for Its Pentium-based PCs. Manfred Schmitt, Escom's chairman (top)

DUDES DOWN

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break ng

Fly Confirmed Kill on the Internet

aou've read my columns about the
Internet and the commercial
online services like GEnie and
the ImagiNation Network. While
the Internet is a vast sprawl of
information (and downloadable images
that make Senator Exon blush),
commercial services seem to be the
place to play. But Domark Software and
former combat helicopter pilot Bryan
Walker have aimed their targeting reticle
squarely in the goal of making the
Internet the place where the cyber-elite
meet to get beat.

Walker, the producer of the new
Domark combat-flight sim Confirmed Kill,
flew an Apache AH-64 gunship and saw
combat during Desert Storm. And
Saddam's finest, if there was such a
thing, fired on Walker's helicopter. Luckily
for us, they missed. Walker may also be
the only computer game producer to
shoot down enemy aircraft, a feat he
managed by taking out two Iraqi MI-8
Soviet-made copters.

Walker, a product of the TRS-80 and
Pong, was always interested in computer
games. After joining up with Domark, a
company calied integrated Creations
called him with the idea to put together a
multiplayer flight sim — but unlike Air
Warrior or Red Baron, played on set
online services, this would be played over
the Internet. IC provided a sophisticated
flight model code and communications
code, and together with Domark's flexible
graphic engine — which Flight Sim Toolkit
showed off — they knew they had a
guaranteed hit. Confirmed Kill, a
multiplayer combat flight simulator set
during World War II, is the product
Domark hopes will knock SVGA Air
Warrior off its throne.

As opposed to a table-based flight
model, CK uses a "4 Space" flight model,
which Walker claims is very simplistic
and predictable. "[Four] Space is more
demanding on a system; our flight model
uses over 4,000 variables and requires a

math coprocessor, so no 486SX (or
NextGen 586) processors can run CK."
CK also has accurate ballistics modeling
and damage modeling, which includes 30
location-specific damage models. A lucky
shot can come through the windshield
and kill the pilot.

The most unique thing about
Confirmed Kill, however, is how you play.
Simply log on to Telnet via your Internet
provider. Telnet enables you to log onto
remote systems through the Internet, so
college students at home during the
summer can still access their school
accounts. The Telnet address for
Confirmed Kill's computer is:
ici2.infohwy.com.

Type in new for your ID, password: pizza.
Download the software from Domark's
home page at
http://www.domark.com/domark.

YOU'll need tOtalktoyour
Internet provider to see how you can get
to Telnet and log on to CK's server.
CompuServe's flight sim forum (GO
FSFORUM) has a whole section devoted
to CK already; the only other sim to get
that kind of attention is
Microsoft Flight Simulator. Users there
can help you get on to Confirmed Kilt
through CompuServe.

Walker wanted to give pilots a sense
of unpredictability. "You're thrust
into a fishbowl of activity; your job is to
find some friends and still accomplish the
mission," he says. Confirmed Kill is in a
public beta test right now. The playing
field is composed of four city-states that
are constantly struggling; you can jump in
to combat or organize a multipilot strike
on an airfield; jump in a bomber and have
friends man defensive gun positions, or
attack ground targets like tanks. Pilots
logging on can check on ground battle
progress; the more territory you hold, the
more points you get.

Confirmed Kill was midway through
public beta testing as of July. A new
version is now available, which can

Bernard Yee has
contributed to USA Today
and writes regularly for
PC Gamer, PC Magazine,
and has authored several
books on gaming

by Bernard Yee

transmit voice radio messages over the
Net; you can also record specific
messages as macros, like "I'm hit" or
"clear my six." Hearing pilots' voices
adds a whole new dimension to
multiplayer gaming. And you'll need as
many friends as you can get. When a pilot
is shot down, the game doesn't end; he or
she has to make it back to friendly
territory. A rescue aircraft (which is
piloted by computer Al) can come and
pick him up, but it's slow and easy to
shoot down. The best part? Confirmed
Kill's beta testing is absolutely free, and
the beta software is also free.

Domark should be running the meter
at about ($2/hr) at this point. A
retail box version will come out with
enemy pilots (which will be adjustable
with different strengths like G tolerance,
maneuver preference, marksmanship) and
will support IPX network and stand-alone
play as well as Windows 95. But you
won't see this until January 1996. It will
cost approximately $40 and will come
with 10 free hours online,

While not as pretty as Flight
Unlimited, CK should be able to run at
1024x768 with 20 frames per second
on a 486/66. When the new 3D
accelerator cards come out, CK should be
able to score about 60-70 fps easily.
There will be customizable texture maps
on the planes, though.

Cyberspace gadget of the

month: Got my USR Sportster 28.8 K v.34
modem up and running. WinFax and
comm support seem fine, and the
Sportster is one of the cheapest and
most reliable 28.8 K units out there —
be sure to check it out if you're
considering getting online.

75300,3625 on CompuServe

BernardY@Pipeline.Com

BernardY@A0L.COM

break ng

Arcadia

All of the most pertinent arcade-related news from
the leading source in the coin-op business

Marcus Webb is
the editor-in-chief
of RePiay
magazine, the US'
leading trade
amusement
magazine

by Marcus Webb

Can't wait to see spurting
gobs of blood in Mortal
Kombatthe movie?

NBA Jam TE is being used
in NANI's tests — 50
playable hooked -up units

1 Forever brings the
movie- videogame
industries one step closer

Motion Capture Studios

When you film a live actor in motion,
then run the film through a specialized
computer program which digitizes the
action for computer manipulation
purposes, it's called "'motion-capture
technology." To our knowledge,
Acclaim Entertainment was the first
videogame company to create an
entire miniature movie studio
dedicated to this process. It's located
in its New York State headquarters,
and this award-winning facility is also
used to create special effects for the
movies such as those seen in this
summer's Warner Bros, blockbuster.
Batman Forever.

As you may have heard by now
(thanks to Acclaim's publicity
juggernaut). Acclaim is also using
some of those same Batman Forever
special effects in coin-op and home
videogames of the same name. What
you may not have heard, yet, is that
Williams/Bally-Midway and Capcom
USA are also setting up motion-capture
studios of their own, both in the
Chicago area. Since Midway's Mortal
Kombat and Capcom's Street Fighter
have already appeared in big-screen
motion picture format, you can
probably expect a continually closer
merging of these factories' videogames
with Hollywood's output.

Street Fighter Alpha

Capcom USA newest game, Street
Fighter Alpha, which is described as a
"prequel" to the original title, is now
out in the
arcades. Ten
major characters
are included.
Among them are
four younger
versions of the
classic

characters (with
slightly different
moves), plus six
new characters
who are
somehow
"related" to the original cast and
story. Four of the new heroes are Guy.
Birdie, Charlie (who looks and moves

just like Guile), and Rose. Graphics are bright, colorful, almost
cartoon-like computer animation; not the super- realistic digitized
versions of real actors seen in Capcom's recent hit videogame Street
Fighter: The Movie.

By the way, Capcom also plans to release Cyberbots around the
same time, and by press time of this magazine, it'll probably be in
the streets. Cyberbots is a one-on-one, hi-tech battle of robots vs.
enemy machines (or robots vs. robots if you're in a nasty mood) .
Finally, Capcom's Night Warriors is also out for this summer; it's a
sequel to Dark Warriors.

NANI Hits the Streets

As of late June, the National Amusement Network, Inc. (NANI) finally
began field tests of 35 to 45 videogames which were linked into a
single network, via phone lines and computer modems. Midway's
NBA Jam Tournament Fdition is being used for the test, with up to 50
units expected to go online at some point during the 90-day trial.
Most test units are located in Kansas and Ohio, with a few Kansas
City games spilling over the border into Missouri.

What's the big deal about networked games? First, players will
be able to enter and compete in tournaments over a period of hours,
days or even weeks; their best scores will be sent to a central data
processing office for comparison and declaration of a winner. Some
fairly big prizes may be offered. Just for comparison purposes, a
networked system of trivia-type games in taverns is already up and
running, owned by another corporation, and it offers prizes all the
way up to a trip to the Caribbean for two! NANI's videogame contests
will be local arcade-to-arcade, city to city, regional, national, and —
eventually — international in scope. (By the way, the central office
which collects the data for all this is run on NANI's behalf by
Electronic Data Systems, the outfit originally founded by Ross Perot).
One neat thing about NANI is that contest promoters can virtually
preprogram any videogame to put the emphasis on any element they
like. With NBA Tournament Jam, for example, a NANI contest can
award point exclusively for free throws. Another contest can give
points just for rebounds; or contests could be designed around any
other move, scoring technique (like slam dunks), or measurable
aspect of gameplay. This will give contest designers (and players) an
almost infinite opportunity to experience videogames in new,
creative, and challenging ways.

More Video Networks

Strictly on the hush-hush, we're advised that NANI is not the only
arcade videogame network slated for a 1995 debut. It seems a major
videogame factory plans a 500-unit test of its own modem-linked
network this fall. In this case, players from different states and cities
will be able to interact in realtime. That is, the winner will not be
determined simply via score comparison, but will actually prove their
superiority instantly by competing blow-for-blow in the same
gameplay environment — although contestants could be physically
separated by hundreds or thousands of miles. Also, it's been hinted
that this particular factory plans to download new games into its
arcade network via modem, rather than physically delivering new
computer circuit boards for each new title. Watch future editions of
Arcadia for more information about all this.

Between
You And
A Successful
Mission Are
Enemy ships,
Attacking Borg,
Malfunctioning
Computers
And Me. T

Kl£

it'

Crossroads Of Time 1

So. You think you're up to the challenge of the
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'" Crossroads of Time
video game. Good luck, human. This is no ordinary
game. It's the ultimate in strategy. As one of your
favorite Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"
characters, you will command the fate
of its station and crew. But be
warned. The universe is a vast
and dangerous place.
And you are not alone.

9k «

j/^ ~

^ ^

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i 4

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^Nintendo

Generator

breaking

by Mark James Ramshaw

You want the skinny from
game developers? Get it
here. All the inside news,
opinions, and gossip —
and none of the fluff

Datebook

Nintendo will be shipping v
' thinl- "

sticks enough'
ng game
"We've heard

September

AMOA — EXPO '95 {The Amusement & Music Operators Association),
takes place on September 21 through 23; New Orleans, Louisiana at
the New Orleans Convention Center. This expo, an excellent previewing
spot for new coin-op games, is one of the major US arcade shows.
Primarily for owners, operators, managers, distributors, suppliers, and
manufacturers of arcade games, videogames, pinball games, CD
jukeboxes, pool tables, etc., AMOA holds seminars addressing topical
management, technical, and marketing issues. For more information
call: (312) 245-1021.

NETWORKS EXPO/WINDOWS WORLD '95, September 12 to 14;
Dallas, Texas; Dallas Convention Center. There will be exhibitions and
demonstrations focusing on network management, interoperability, the
Internet, TCP/IP connectivity, client/server applications and enterprise
networking — an excellent meeting for showcasing networkable games.
Windows World will run concurrently and feature a conference program
focusing on new products, technology management, network
computing, multimedia, software developer strategies, and Windows
technical supply. Call; (801) 655-8024

October

PC EXPO, October 3 to 5; Chicago, Illinois, at McCormick Place East.
This trade show focuses on the PC industry, the needs of senior-level
computer pro's from the Midwest, and has a decent section showing
games, more now that Windows 95 is out. Portable computers, graphic
user interface applications, networking, client/server and multimedia
technologies will also be exhibited. For more information call: (800)
829-3976.

1 be great.

ane change which would affect every single style of
atformers, everything."

ie trackball of yest
iples of a velocity-sensitive game controller.

it with problems. You lose control because y

keen to a

s to make it to the next generation of console controller.

When you play Daytona you can feel the Ci
inst you. It'd be great to have resistance mot
controller, so you can feel it when you push against the
That's the sort of thing which gives a real sense of (mrm
the feedback keeps the believability alive."

Home & Family Computing Supershow, on October 6-8 at Boston's
Bayside Exposition Center and on October 20-22 at Atlanta's Cobb
Galleria Center. Open to the public, this show is designed to provide
an easy way for families to learn about computer and other high-tech
products that emphasize education and entertainment. For more
information call: (713) 974-5252.

Autodesk University, October 29 to November 2; San Francisco at
the Moscone Convention Center. Open to the public, this conference
holds classes focusing on multimedia topics, a broad range of CAD
tools, and techniques enabled by AutoCAD and its related applications.
Special events include the first annual "Planet Studio" Multimedia
Awards and Electronic Festival. Call: (415) 691-1488.

December

Home & Family Computing Supershow, December 8 to 10, at the

Dallas Convention Center and December 15 to 17 at the Moscone
Center in San Francisco. Open to the public, this show is designed to
provide an easy way for families to learn about computer and other
high-tech products emphasizing education and entertainment. For more
information call: (713) 974-5252.

Mark James Ramshaw Is free-lance journalist and game consultant
who writes for various videogame and music magazines

"he Future
Starts Here!

low that you have the latest in hardware technology,
you're going to need an upgrade controller that can
really harness the power of this new machine.
STD makes it happen with these hot game controllers
for Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation and 3DO...

M and Sega Saturn 1 "

gistered trademarks of Sega Enterprises. Ltd 3DO™ is a trademark of trie 3DO Company. Sony PlayStation™ is a trademark of Sony Computet Enle ■

EclipsePad for Sega Saturn™

This economically designed control
pad sets the standard for comfort and
features with eight large fire buttons,
independent auto-fire, programmable
synchro-fire, an LED panel, slow
motion, and an extra long cord.

EclipseStick for Sega Saturn™

This powerful stick — with a sturdy
metal base, eight full-size fire buttons,
semi and hands-free auto-fire,
programmable synchro-fire, slow
motion, an LED panel, and an extra
long cord — brings home all the
action of your favorite arcade hits.

EclipsePad for
Sega Saturn™

PS ProPad for Sony PlayStation™

Contoured hand grips, eight fire buttons,
semi and hands-free auto-fire, four
speeds of auto-fire, three speeds of
slow motion, LED indicators, and an
extra long cord provide total control
over the tough competition.

PS ProPad for
Sony PlayStation 7 '

ProPad for 3D0™

Six fire buttons, independent control
for semi and hands-free auto-fire,
three speeds of auto-fire, and an
extra long cord make this pad a vital
threat to any opponent.

In Total Control!

STD Entertainment (USA), Inc.

10945 McCormick Rd. • Hunt Valley, MD 21031 • 410-785-5661

Back Issues

As NEXT Generation celebrates its ninth issue, buy yourself a present in the form of a complete collection

With change conies confusion, and as the gaming world continues to evolve and reinvent itself, reliable information
becomes invaluable. Complete your collection of previous NEXT Generation issues now, before copies sell out

An interview with Trip Hawkins (President & CEO of The 3D0 Company)
A comprehensive, in-depth look at all the next generation systems
preparing for battle in 1995

The Violence Tapes. Four of the world's most controversial game developers in
one virtual room

Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Pilot Wings)

Saturn: The complete story so far

Gaming on the information superhighway (aka "Joyriding")

Revival of the Fittest. Just why is retrogaming so popular?

Tom Kalinske (President & CEO of Sega of America)

Does PlayStation live up to the hype? A look at Sony's bid for

world gaming domination. Including a four-page profile of Ridge Racer

What's wrong with the PC? (Part one). Can gaming on the PC survive?

Making tracks (aka "the noble art of game music")

Virtua Fighter. Saturn's fighting chance profiled

Nolan Bushnell (the inventor of Pong, and the founder of Atari)

Atari: from boom to bust, and back again. The complete history

of the oldest videogame company in the world

An audience with Gumpei Yokoi, the inventor of Nintendo's Virtual

Boy and Game Boy

What's wrong with the PC? (Part two). Where is the PC game scene heading?

NG5

talking Steve Race (Sony Computer Entertainment's President & CEO)

ng hardware Ultra 64: the story so far. Nintendo's 64-bit collaboration with Silicon Graphics

is shrouded in secrecy. A 13-page expose
ng special Apple: the ripe stuff. The story behind the latest company to

develop a game machine

NG6

talking Peter Molyneux (Bullfrog's leader and possibly the smartest guy in gaming)

ng hardware M2: 3D0 bites back. On paper, Trip Hawkins' M2 is "10 times more powerful

than Sony's PlayStation." But can 3D0 make it work?
ng special PlayStation's Disciples: A look at how PlayStation games are made

NG7

talking Sam Tramiel: Atari talks back (Atari's President & CEO)

ng hardware 3D0: Past, Present, and Future. What has 3D0 achieved so far, and what does

the future hold for Trip Hawkins' vision?
ng special Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E 3 ) — the definitive show report

talking Howard Lincoln: Nintendo's president justifies the delay of Ultra 64

ng special Sega Saturn: the hype-free guide

ng special Japanese RPGs: coming to a US console near you soon

NEXT Generation Back Issues

(US Only) « Back issues NG 2 through NG 8 are $4.99 + $1.50 delivery per issue.

• Back issue NG 1. the Premiere Issue, is $7.99 + $1.50 delivery.
Please Mall Check to: Imagine Publishing, Inc. Back Issue Dept. N695

1350 Old Bayshore Hwy, Suite 210

Burlingame, CA 94010

The ultimate information resource or the new wave of games systems

For faster service call
us at 1-800-706-9500
or NGSUBS@aol.com.
Have your credit card
information available.
Only $29.00 for 12
issues delivered right to
your door each month.

today „ 0/

and save OVCNf OU/O

Send to: NEXT Generation, P.O. Box 53680, Boulder, CO 80322-3680

Yes!

ISend me one full year (12 issues) of
NEXT Generation. I'll pay just $29.00 and
save over 50% off the newsstand cover price.

— —

account number

Eaazzas

YOU'VE GOT IT ON YOUR HANDS. YOU
DON'T HAVE ENOUGH OF IT. YOU'VE GOT
IT ON YOUR SIDE. YOU'RE PRESSED FOR
IT. YOU SPEND IT. YOU WASTE IT. IT'S
IN. IT'S OUT. IT'S NOW. IT'S PAST. IT'S
RUNNING OUT. IT'S DRAWING NEAR.
CHRONO TRIGGER". IT'S ABOUT TIME.

f 4-ft4 *\

ng special

Advances In VR technology promise to
change forever the way humans Interact with
machines. A tester looks to improve optics

all

s a technology, virtual reality has

I captured the imagination of
technophiles for nearly a decade.

I Countless movies, books, and
television shows have convinced the public
thatVR technology is extremely cool, all-
encompassing, strangely unattainable and
simultaneously somewhat dangerous.

So where does the truth lie! Will VR
really step in and change our lives, say, in the
next five years? Will it take longer? NEXT
Generation has taken a close look at the
truths behind VR, what is it, where it came
from, where it's going, and perhaps most
importantly, what's actually available today.

The first problem in any VR discussion is ~~
to define exactly what the somewhat nebulous term means. The most basic definition
includes the skillful attempt at fooling the human senses into believing that they are
immersed in another world. This rather loose definition includes just about anything driving
the human imagination, including books, motion pictures, theater, art, even dreams. Other
pundits claim that the most important factor is interactivity, enabling users to determine
their own paths and fates, a system that can include most computer games and musical
instruments. Neither of these is exclusive enough to define the equipment that most people
think of as virtual reality. For the purposes of this article, we'll define VR as: Any technology
that attempts to fool an individual's senses into believing that they are in another world,
while enabling interaction with this world in a way that mirrors reality. This definition is
tight enough to filter out movies and most computer games, but open enough to include the
wide variety of VR equipment, including HMDs (head mounted displays), gloves and wands.

^^^^^■^^^H 1^^^ SO Where did it all come from?The

k0 history ofVR is a journey unto itself, consisting
{fl K of brilliant flashes of frantic activity, followed by

rff^^^^^^^^^^ periods of dormancy almost always interpreted
^^^^^^H I 1 -41 as the inevitable death of the technology.

Vl^^^W Surprisingly enough is that most of this activity

\^^^Br came from the same people time and again. It

seems that once someone has entered the
arena ofVR development, they never want to leave, and, like many of computing's major
advances, the story begins with the death of the vacuum tube.

The attempts to eliminate barriers between man and computer have been underway
for just about as long as the computer itself. One of the first pioneers in the evolution of
the computer was Douglas Englebart, who was looking for a way to make computers more
accessible for the untrained user. With his background in Navy radar systems, Englebart
realized the video screen could be used to display computer output instead of waiting for a
computer printout. Soon thereafter he decided these screens could also enable users to
access special devices to input information into the computer. In 1968, after several years of
research funded by the Department of Defense, Englebart gave a presentation at the Fall
Joint Computer Conference. While most users were still struggling with punchcards,
Englebart displayed a document on-screen, used the first mouse to select strings of text, and
even featured cut-and-paste options. The computer world would never be the same again.

In 1968 Jaron Lanier, the man credited with creating VR, and Chuck
Blanchard, also a member of the VPL team, went on to form Greenleaf
Medical Systems, which used VR technology in medical applications

Mark Long and Joanna
Alexander used their VR
experience to launch Zombie

Building off Englebart's earlier work, another visionary, Ivan
Sutherland, began to see yet another way to break down the
barriers between man and machine. In 1962 Sutherland designed
Sketchpad, a computer program permitting users to "draw" on the
screen with a light pen. Attributed with the invention of computer
graphics, Sutherland went on to push the abilities of the new form to
its limits. At a computer conference in 1 965, he sparked the
imaginations of the entire industry saying "the screen is a window
through which one looks into a virtual world. The challenge is to
make the world look real, sound real, feel real, and interact
realistically." Sutherland went a step further in 1968 as he attempted
to shape a virtual world by building the first HMD at the University
of Utah. Nicknamed "The Sword of Damocles," this bulky device
was the true beginning of virtual reality.

During tnG /US, while most experts concentrated on
building more and more realistic simulators for the military, there
were a few concentrated efforts at pushing the virtual frontier. In
1975, Myron Krueger developed a system enabling people to stand
and interact with a computer-controlled projection screen. Although
the strange results were intended to be a new form of art, the
technologies used in the product ended up becoming incorporated
into the virtual reality toolkit. The people who were about to
become the driving force of VR were beginning to group together.

In 1980, several universities and businesses began to show
interest in the commercial prospects of the new technology. At the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Fred Brooks put
together a system that gave students a chance to actually manipulate
molecules with their hands, feeling the atomic forces through a
feedback device. Thomas Furness, working for the Air Force in
Ohio, developed the "Heads Up Display" (HUD) and the "Visually
Coupled Airborne Simulator," which projects a 3D target area onto
pilots' helmets. In 1 98 1, Tom Zimmerman invented the first data
glove, a crude device that measured the flow of light through large
plastic tubes. That same year, Jaron Lanier, a programmer who had
set up a garage laboratory with money made of videogame free-

lancing, teamed up with Zimmerman,
Chuck Blanchard.Young Harvill, and
Steve Bryson to start VPL (Virtual
Programming Language? Lanier himself
is not entirely sure what the initials
stand for) the company that would
eventually lay the groundwork for the
future ofVR. Three years later,
Michael McGreevy, the head of
NASA's newly created Virtual
Environment Research Lab, received
government backing to produce an
HMD he fashioned from two Radio
Shack monitors mounted into a
motorcycle helmet. Everything was
beginning to come together.

In that same year, VPL was in full
swing, producing hand-made versions
of Zimmerman's control device, now named the DataGlove, to
businesses and universities for about $9,000 a pop. Shortly after
this, the company started production of entire bodysuits that tracked
human motion with a price tag of around $20,000. Each unit
worked a little differently than the last, constant upgrades being
made as the team discovered new technologies. Business was going
quite well for the team, which received the patents for the glove, and
in 1984 it received its first contract to work with NASA. At NASA's
Ames Research Center, VPL began working with McGreevy's Virtual
Visual Environment Display to create a glove that would work with
the new system. At roughly the same time, VPL started designing a
cheaper version of the HMD, named the EyePhones, to be integrated
into full VR systems. During the next few years the company
continued to grow, and thanks, in no small part, to Lanier's fervent
evangelistic efforts, interest in virtual reality sparked everywhere.

This small company — at its height there were only about 60
people employed — held the patents not only for the DataGlove
(the patent was updated in 1990 to include the new fiber optics
technology) but in January 1 99 1, for "the manipulation of virtual
objects in a computer system according to the gestures and
positions of an operator's hand or body part." Technically, this
meant that the company was due royalties from any company
producing just about any type of virtual reality equipment. Lawsuits
began to fly, including one with Abrams/Gentile Entertainment Inc.,
over the payment of licensing fees due to VPL for the Mattel Power
Glove (which was basically an $80 version of the same glove that
VPL had been producing — at a considerably higher price — for
years). In 1991, Lanier appeared before Congress at the behest of
Senator Al Gore (D-Tenn) to preach on the importance of US
funding ofVR
research. Although it
looked like the little
company had made
the big time, it was
less than a year before
everything fell apart.
Although VPL
had been successful
selling VR systems and
technology, the
company still relied on
Companies like gravity are now able to backing from venture

create seamless 3D worlds as in this capitalists. In the late

domestic scene in Bug! on the Sega Saturn

ng special

Mattel's successful (although gimmicky)
PowetGlove was an evolution of the same
DataGlove created by Zimmerman in 1981

'80s,VPL borrowed
money from the
French company
Thompson, using its
own patents as
collateral. When the
loan defaulted in
October 1 992, the
company's run was all
over. VPL lost all of
its patents, the talent
was scattered, and
the money was gone.
During the next
few years, VPL's

graduating class '

started finding ways to use their talent in other fields. Jaron worked
in many different communities, helping various companies get their
start in the VR world. Chuck Blanchard landed at Greenleaf, Steve
Bryson took employment at NASA, and Young Harvill ended up at
Macromedia. Even employees of later years went on to start their
ownVR-oriented shops: Dale McGrew started Gravity, which, after a
year or so of research, decided to go into the entertainment
software side of VR (making Ascent); and Mark Long and Joanna
Alexander started another entertainment development team and
called it Zombie (which makes Locus). Three years after the breakup
ofVPL, people began shifting their efforts from the seemingly
unprofitable commercial side ofVR to entertainment.

Perhaps the

most component ofVR
systems is the enigmatic
Head Mounted Display
(HMD). Since its

\ J \ i \t ^ \ — J invention in the '60s,

^f|'l™ \t\ / ^" > HMD design and

construction has surfaced
in several different

approaches, each improving the realism and/or price point of

previous models. The most basic requirements for a HMD are two

display screens and a set of optics. The display screens present the

information sent by the computer, and the optics (in the form of

lenses) permit the user to focus on images

that rests about 4 inches from their face.

Physical factors must be taken into

account when constructing an HMD.

Will the headset be too heavy for

someone to wear without augmentation!

Does it allow for variations in

interpupillary distance (IPD)> How much

field of view will it offer? All of these

factors will determine the realism of

wearers' suspended disbelief — or

feeling of "actually being there."

There are several variations in the

type of HMD displays presently available.

LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays), like the

kind found in portable video games, are

the most popular choice in today's

designs, offering color output and a reasonable

price tag. Unfortunately, today's LCD screens don't

Virtual Reality:
Through the New
Looking Glass

Ken Pimentel and

Kevin Teizeria $24.95

Well written, easy to

understand, and thorough,

Virtual Reality: Through the

New looking Glass li an

Invaluable resource for

beginners and VR veterans

alike. In 15 chapters, the

authors cover everything there Is to know about VR, from its

conception and history, current uses and applications, and major

research centers, to the technical aspects of how various pieces of

equipment actually function. A comprehensive appendix Includes a list

and description of available VR products, a list of VR company names,

addresses, and phone numbers, sample source code for programmers,

and a full glossary. If you want to jump into VR, start here.

Virtual Worlds
Benjamin Woolley $12

This book is a fascinating look at the pure philosophy of virtual
reality. Woolley uses tools of classic philosophy to examine the
questions created by the existence of virtual worlds. If reality Is a
matter of perception, then Isn't virtual reality just as real as anything
else? More of a mind Journey than a resource guide, this Is one title
that Is not recommended for light reading, Virtual Worlds Is the kind
of book that keeps you up at night wondering If you really exist at all.

The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality

Michael Helm $9.95

Slightly more technical the Virtual Worlds, The Metaphysics of Virtual
Reality is another look at how the human condition Is affected by the
influence of artificial realities. Easy to read and understand, the book
takes a forward look at possible changes in personal Interaction,
information gathering, and life itself. Some of the particularly
interesting sections take a deep examination at such diverse topics as
sexual Implications of William Gibson's Neuromancer, the development
of computer AI, and the changes In creative thought that are brought
about by word processing. A worthwhile read for futurists.

Virtual Reality Now

Larry Steven $24.95

Another great source reference, though not as geared to the beginner
as Plmentel's guide. Basically a hands-on guide, the book contains
plenty of Info on VR programming, HMD and DataGlove technical
information, and other handy tidbits for the VR buff. Early chapters
contain a good history of VR, and Interesting insight on current VR
research centers. Some attention is paid to the future of the
technology, and there's even a chapter on the possibilities surrounding
cybersex.Thls Is a good technical guide for the Inner workings of VR. A
disk with VR demos tar the PC is included.

Virtual Reality Playhouse

Nicholas Lavroff $23.95

Although ft looks small for the rather high price tag, Virtual Reality
Playhouse Is a great manual tar PC owners who want to create
their own VR systems. A small amount of space Is devoted to
the history of VR, but the bulk of the book Is centered on how
VR works, and how you can build It at home. In addition to a
disk full of PC demos, the book contains Instructions on how to
convert a Mattel PowerGlove so that it will function with a PC,
as well as how to modify Sega's old 3D glasses to do the
same. A must own tar tlnkerers and fanatics.

VR World

Editor: Sandra Kay Helsel $4.95

Probably the best of the periodicals devoted to covering

virtual reality, VR World is a well-written mag that
reports on all aspects of the technology, from
entertainment to Industry. In addition to great
articles on the future, present, and past of VR, the
ads In the magazine are a fantastic place to track
down any equipment or products you might be
looking tar. Highly recommended.

^^p

; n the next few months, three multipurpose
HMOs launch for the home PC market. This
is the ground floor for the entertainment
future of VR, and a competition of design,

' and consumer decisions in the next year
may affect headset design for the next five.

Virtual i/o

One of the strongest entries into the fray is Virtual
i/o's i-glasses!.A break away from conventional HMD
design, the i-glasses! weigh as little as 8 ounces and
use partial reflection mirrors to enable users to view
their playing world. Gamers can use keyboards, see
people around them, and keep track of hint sheets, etc.,
without having to remove the display. A black plastic
shield can be used to block this effect if users want a
more immersive experience. The glasses use twin 0.7 inch LCDs that deliver
138,000 pixels resolution per screen. Field of view is limited to about 30
degrees. The six foot focus keeps eye strain to a minimum, and the curved
aspect of the display mirrors eliminates the need for individual user
changes. The tracking mechanism gives three degrees of freedom and
boasts a sample rate of 60 Hz. The biggest drawback to the unit is its price,
about $800 for the full-tracking unit. VR purists may also find that the open
design lets in too many distractions even with the shield in place. In the
end, the i-glasses! aren't the most
expensive unit on the market, they
deliver some of the best resolution
and tracking available, and the
light-weight and open design keep
disorientation and vertigo to a bare
minimum. In addition, the fact that
Virtual i/o receives its funding from
TCI, the nation's largest cable TV
operator, ensures that the company has the resources required to weather
the financial strain of launching a new product. Definitely one to watch.
Virtual i-o, Inc. 1000 Lenora Street, Suite 600
Seattle Wa. 98121 Ph. (206) 382-7410

Forte

The most immersive design available on the market, the VFX-1 offers PC
users a comfortable design with fair resolution and range of vision. The
headset design most resembles a knight's helmet, with a visor that slides
down in the front featuring twin, independently foe usable eyepieces. Stereo
sound is pumped in through padded earphones built directly into the
helmet. Tracking is relatively smooth as the piece uses the same basic
principle as other HMDs — a magnetic tracking system using the Earth's
own EM field as a constant. Everything about the HMD's design is created
to completely block out the influence of the outside world. Switching back
and forth from VR applications to standard computer controls is relatively
easy, requiring the user to slide the visor into its upright position. This
design also keeps any of the helmet's weight from resting on the user's
nose, a cause of many HMD-related headaches. Resolution is 505x230 pixels
displayed on the two standard seven inch LCD screens. Field of view is
reported at 35.2 degrees with a horizontal
range of 46.4 degrees, and a diagonal range
of 56.1 degrees. The unit can be worn with
glasses, but the independent focus feature
of the eyepieces may correct for some
vision problems. The unit also ships with a
VR control device called the Cyberpuck —
compatible with many of today's more
popular 3D action and flight simulation
games. The biggest drawback to the unit is
its prohibitive price, starting right now at

about $1,000. While it's the most expensive, the unit's inclusion of a fully
functional virtual controller makes it well worth the price to VR fanatics.

Forte Technologies Inc. 1057 E. Henrietta Rd.

Rochester NY 14623 Ph. (716) 427-8595

T Victormaxx

^g^P^^^^- Victormaxx's Cybermaxx emphasizes the

^w ^^^t th ' rtl asoect °* design: field of view. Each

f£ ^_A— t^fl^^C °' * ne unit's seven-inch LCDs deliver

^Hj^^^K 180,000 pixel res, and an field of view of
fc 54 degrees. Like the VFX-1, the headset is
flfl ^^F corr, P ,e * G ly rrvtmersive. offering

^■li^H ^^r independent focus for both eyes.

^^^r Ergonomics are somewhat unwieldy, with
a great deal of the weight of the unit on
the front of a player's face, a build concept that can cause discomfort in
long-term wear situations. The system tracking is moderately fast, with a
sample rate of 75 Hz. In a final view, the major advantage of the Cybermaxx
is its reasonable price point, $889. Unfortunately, many players will find
that the payoff in comfort and resolution isn't worth saving a few dollars.
Victormaxx 510 Lake Cook Rd.
Suite 1QO, Deerfield, IL 60015
Ph. (800) 815-M AXX

New breakthroughs in HMD (head mounted
displays) design are beginning to eliminate
problems with user disorientation

deliver much in the
way of resolution, a
problem amplified by
a HMD's magnifying
optics. Typical LCD
resolution stands at
440x240 split
between red, blue, and
green. This provides
developers with a
total pixel count of
about 35,000. In
comparison to the
standard VGA display
of more than 300,000
pixels, it's easy to see
why designers are frustrated by the limits of the LCD screen. Even
so, this is today's favored display method for low cost PC HMD
manufacturers.

The CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) alternative eliminates much of
the resolution problem, but creates new problems in both price,
color and size. CRTs small enough to be implemented into an HMD
are not as common in other commercial applications, so finding
them at a reasonable price can be difficult. Another problem is the
lack of a small CRT display unit that can deliver a full color display.
Finally, fitting one of these displays into an HMD requires more
complex optical setups and electromagnetic shielding, both of which
add size and weight to the final design. There are ways to address all
of these problems, but the added expense has kept such devices in
the hands of the military or major corporations and beyond the
reach of the layman.

One new alternative is to use smaii moving

mirrors to reflect LED output into a users' field of view. Developed
by Reflection Technology, this kind of unit can display fairly high
resolution, with a small footprint, at low cost. Unfortunately, these
systems are unable to deliver anything but a monochrome display,
hampering the virtual world's effect severely. Nintendo's Virtual Boy
uses this technology to deliver red images onto a black background.

In order to achieve a true sense of realism, virtual reality
devices should enable the user to interact with his or her world in a
manner as close as possible to the way they interact with the real
world. Even with the best stereoscopic display in the world, an
HMD wearer forced to use a
keyboard will be constantly
reminded that they are in a
simulation. Motion
tracking eliminates this
problem by giving the
computer a constant
update on the
orientation of the
headset. As with the
display itself, there are
a few different ways
to achieve this
particular goal.

Electromagnetic
coils are currently the
best way to achieve a
cheap and effective

form of tracking, in which two sets of three-wire coils have a small
electric charge applied to them in sequence, creating magnetic fields
measured by another device. The chief advantage of EM tracking is
that it is small, and for the most part inexpensive (nothing inVR is
really cheap, yet). The biggest disadvantage is the tendency of the
systems to pick up outside signals from televisions and monitors in
the area. Ultrasonic trackers and mechanical tracking (the use of
cords or wires that move with the head) are other alternatives, but
are more suited to specialist needs than mass-market application.
Once visually plugged into the virtual landscape, they need a
way to interact with the world around them to continue the illusion
of reality, a way of manipulating their environment. There are almost
as many different tools for this as there are applications, but most of
them fall into the categories of wands, 3D mice, isometric objects,
gloves, or body suits. Like everything in virtual reality, each device
has its own special advantages and disadvantages, each looking for
the ultimate goal of providing an inexpensive way of immersing a
user into the virtual world.

Wands are much like the joysticks
most videogamers are familiar with,
except they come without a base.
Available in almost every shape
imaginable, they contain variations of the
same tracking equipment found in HMDs,
with a couple of buttons tacked on. Each
^sw axis of motion (pitch,

roll, and yaw) is
measured, and sent
back to the computer
which translates the
signals into motion,
action, or whatever the
programmer can dream
up. Wands are
relatively cheap, very
effective, and perhaps
^fc most importantly, they

Stereoscopic effects like those in Ascent
(above) and this demo from Gravity (below)
cam be used to add depth to a virtual world

are easy for a new user
to understand and
operate. Forte's VFX
system and Virtuality's
arcade systems both use wand-!ike objects for motion.

Much like the standard mouse, a 3D mouse works by moving a
small object within a small physical confine. The unit uses standard
tracking methods to detect movement in three dimensions, but
unlike a wand, users can reach the "edge" of the motion detection
area, and as with a standard mouse, they must pick it up and re-
center it before moving again. Three dimensional mice are useful for
applications requiring accuracy, but are expensive and hard to use.
Among others, Logitech currently has a 3D mouse available.

Spaceballs are the most familiar of the isometric family of
control units. These devices look like a round ball set into a base,
and use optical or mechanical sensors to detect any force put on
the ball. If a user pulls the ball straight up, twists it, or rolls it back
and forth, an appropriate signal is sent back to the computer. Other
isometric units often look like joysticks or plates, and are most
useful for streamlined motion control.

Gloves have been a part ofVR history since the early '80s.
More than any other type of control, gloves enable users to interact
with their computer world in a way perfectly mimicking reality.
VPL's original DataGlove patented design is still the basis of most

used form of glove technology, and operates by measuring the
flow of light through a series of fiber optic cables. When an area
bends, less light travels through the cable telling the computer
movement has taken place. On the joints of the hand, the cable
is often looped or scratched to emphasize motions made in
these areas. A motion-tracking device is also included to
determine where the hand rests in space. These units are
available from several sources, but their prohibitive price
(anywhere from $2,000) has stunted their potential.

The Only major exception was Mattel's Power
Glove for the NES, which sold for around $80 and was almost
identical to the technology being used in VPL's $8,000 unit.
Despite the fact that these units are no longer sold, they can still
be found in the workshops ofVR enthusiasts who have found
ways to make them work with PCs and Macs.

Other companies have tried a different approach to glove
construction by using mechanical exoskeletons. These units are
skeletal constructions (a la Terminator) using sensors in each of
their joints which tell the computer their exact position at any
given moment. While they tend to be more accurate and
reliable, the size and price of the units will probably keep them
from achieving mass market success. One low-cost option is
being researched by the University of Florida at Orlando: By
placing bands of conductive metal on the ends of each finger and
in the hand, this computer receives signals every time a circuit is
completed. And although this method is very inexpensive, it does
not yet offer the same degree of accuracy of other systems.

"Tactile feedback" is another glove innovation that's been
pursued for some time. InVR simulation, though users can
access a glove to pick up objects, his or her sense of touch will
not give them the signals that they would receive in the real
world, a reminder that they're in a simulation. First pioneered by
the Advanced Robotics Research Center in England, the first
tactile feedback system to achieve a believable tactile response
used small air bladders inside of a glove that could return

Realism can be added to VR simulations through the use of intuitive
controllers like Forte's Cyber Puck (above), or Thrustmaster's sit-
down Flight Control Systems (inset)

twfflVU

pressure in 20 different areas. Because the bladders currently tend
to cause glove calibration problems, this method is still being
perfected. When working correctly, a user could reach out in a
virtual world to touch an object and actually feel the physical
response of the object on his or her skin. Other research in tactile
feedback is being done with the use of small vibrating coils. Although
these coils aren't as realistic in feel as the air bladders, these units
are far cheaper to make, and do deliver some believable feedback.

The same technologies used in gloves can be expanded to the
whole body;VPL has manufactured a number of units that detect the
motions of the entire body. Looking a lot like a superhero outfit,
these DataSuits offered users the ultimate immersion.

Regardless of how many

different corporations have stepped into
the virtual universe, their work means
nothing until the average gamer can
get their hands on the technology.
Fortunately, there are many ways
gamers can spend some time on
serious VR systems without needing
a rich relative.

The easiest and least expensive
way is to pay a visit to the nearest
location-based entertainment site.
Virtual World Entertainment sites are a strange trip into another
world even as you walk into the door. These sites are set up like old
Victorian style parlors, with the idea that the player is a member of
an exclusive club dedicated to the exploration of alternate worlds.
As members of the imaginary Virtual Geographic League, gamers are
given a choice of alternate dimensions to explore, currently limited
to BattleTech and Red Planet After paying their fee, initiates are run
through a video-training session staring Judge Reinhold, and work
with staff members to confirm they understand all of the controls.
Once training is complete, gamers step into the cockpit and enter
the virtual world of their choice.

In BattleTech, players control a giant robot armed to the teeth
in the attempt to lay into similarly equipped enemies. Red Planet sets
explorers in vast mining canals on a futuristic Martian colony,
wherein they race to win with others on hovercrafts. The total cost
is $7 to $9 for a 30-minute session — only 1 minutes of which is
actually spent in the simulator. US sites currently include Chicago,
IL, Houston and Dallas.TX, Las Vegas, NV, and Mil pitas, Walnut
Creek, San Diego, and Pasadena, CA. At less than $1 per minute, this
is one of the bestVR deals you're likely to find.

If you're more into the flight sim concept, then the Magic Edge
Entertainment complexes may be more to your liking. For about
$13 you can strap into a mock jet fighter and jump into a virtual
dogfight. The trick here is that each of the cockpits moves uses
hydraulics to emulate the G-forces a pilot would actually experience
in flight. Each pilot is given a microphone permitting them to chat
with the rest of their squad during the battle. The combination of
silky-smooth, texture-mapped images and gut-wrenching motion is
surprisingly realistic, making flight fun in and of itself. Each play
session lasts about 15 minutes which comes pretty close to
matching the $1 /minute charge that seems to be the standard.
Currently, the only two centers are in Mountain View, CA, and Tokyo,
japan, so the biggest problem is finding your way to the center.

Disney is currently working on aVR system to be one section
of a four-part Aladdin ride, based on the blockbuster film. The
current setup included as part of a tour places the user into an

HMD and provides a carpeted bar to hold onto. By twisting and
turning the controller, players can fly through the streets of Agrabah
for about two minutes. The HMD, attached to the ceiling to prevent
the weight from resting on the head of the user, enables pilots to
view the action from any angle, including straight down at the carpet
itself — where they will see a small pair of Mickey Mouse hands
gripping the virtual carpet. One of the most impressive facets of this
ride is its amazing sound. As players whiz through the city, they will
hear the crowd's yells and catcalls through the ear closest to the
virtual actor at the appropriate volume. Presently, however, only 4%
of people on tours are lucky enough to be chosen to take a ride...

The Guggenheim Museum in New York featured an exhibit of
virtual art that was created by Thomas Dolby and his Headspace
Studio. In the interactive piece, users watch and listen to a virtual
quartet playing various musical pieces. Using a hand-pointer shaped,
the music can be changed by "tickling" different members of the
orchestra. While not entertainment software in the classic sense,
the experiment does show howVR can be used by an artist to
deliver a unique experience.

Arcades are getting in on the action too, with the addition of
stand-up or sit-down units from Virtuality. Starting in March 1991
with a sit-down immersive system called the Virtuality 1000 Sit-
Down, the company then moved on to release a 1000 Stand-up unit
in November of the same year. In March 1994, the updated 2000
series became available, selling to arcades for about $35,000. There
are currently five games available for the 2000 series including Dactyl
Nightmare 2: Race for the Eggs, a strange game pitting players against
each other in an arena filled with stairs, gunfire, and nasty flying
lizard; Virtuality Boxing; Zone Hunter, Buggy Ball; and X-Treme Strike.
Earlier this year.Virtuality teamed up with entertainment giant
Blockbuster to provide systems for the new Block Party complexes
opening up this year.

AS Of January l995 l Virtualityclaimedtoholda90%
market share in immersive virtual reality arcade systems, based on
sales of more than 900 units of its Series 2000 machines in 33
countries. The company recently solidified a deal with IBM to
produce low-cost (less than $10,000) systems for developing VR
applications. These systems consist of an IBM ValuePoint PC using a
specialized operating system, Virtuality's own V-SPACE development
software, an accelerator card, and the same Visette2 HMD used in
the series 2000 arcade systems. In October 1 994, Virtuality also

DataGloves (left) offer users a familiar way of Interacting with the
computer by following natural hand movements (bottom right). The
SpaceBall achieves the same result in a different manner (top right)

ng special

Gamers immerse at Magic
Edge (top), Virtual Worlds

(middle), and Virtual ity arcades

announced a
licensing
agreement with
Atari for the production of a
mass-market, console-based VR
game (NG 8). Prices for arcade
gameplay vary, but most locations
are charging $4 to $5 dollars per
play lasting anywhere from about
three to seven minutes. Series
2000 units can be found in large
chains including Blockbuster's
Golf and Gaes, United Artist
Theaters, Nickels & Dimes, and
Namco's Wonderland arcade.

For a completely different
take on virtual reality, The Vivid
Group has the strangely named Mandala System, a unit using video
cameras to put an image of the user into a live-motion world. Users
stand in front of a monitor and can then interact with objects on the
game screen by actually performing the real-life actions. There are
installations placed at science centers, museums, and sport halls of
fame all across the US and Canada, each with their own special
program. Current options include a goaltending trainer at the NHL
Hockey Hall of Fame in Ontario, a tour of the Starship Enterprise,
and The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and recently, an
electronic carnival also toured in the summer Lollapalooza '94
concerts. While not as immersive as the cockpit or HMD
simulations, the Mandala system does have the advantage of being
one of the few types of VR entertainment not requiring the user to
strap into any hardware.

Although they're still fairly expensive. HMDs and other VR
devices are beginning to reach an affordable level for the PC. Three
manufacturers are in the running to produce an HMD that will take
over the home market, each company defining its distinct philosophy
on what the average user expects and needs from virtual reality.
While it remains to be
seen whether users are
ready to part with
between $500 and
$ 1 ,000 for their own VR
system, these companies
(see page 40) have made
the first step toward
mass-market use.

PC users can also
get a taste of several
virtual control devices.
SpaceTec's Spaceball
Avenger is an isometric
device for the home that

ant to play a virtual reality game at home? Go
ahead. Already a fine selection of high-end PC

; exist that boast VR compatibility. Expect
more such games come the launch of the
systems profiled on page 40, but for the
moment, these are our top 10 escapes from reality.

i Flight Unlimited — Looking Glass

One of the more recent releases, Looking Glass' Flight

Unlimited It the game

you want to show off

to your friends. Full

tracking support

enables pilots to look
In any direction from the inside
of their plane down onto a
photo realistic landscape. Game
options include simply flying
around your new world, flying
through aerial obstacle courses,

or jumping into series of acrobatic lessons that are guaranteed ti
you forget where you are. More than fust a showcase for HMDs, Flight
Unlimited creates a believable flight atmosphere by managing real-world
physics models and full atmospheric effects In five different
environments. If you've got a headset, you've got to try this game.

2 Delta V - Bethesda

Delta Vputs players in the shoes of a high-tech netrunner looking to
make big bucks in a dangerous profession. Basically a shooting game in a
pipe, the game consists of the central character running at high speeds
through bizarre obstacle courses looking for data and powerups, while
trying to avoid the constant assault of Increasingly aggressive enemies.
Due to the high speed nature
of the game, ft will take you a
little while to get used to
moving your Meld of view to
anywhere other than straight
ahead, but the strange and
beautiful landscapes of the
cyberworld make It worth
taking a little extra damage. A
good, straightforward and
simple action game.

3 Ascent — Gravity

Noticing how reticent new users were to take advantage of an HMD's
tracking functions, the designers at Gravity created a title that would
make head motion part of gameplay. In Ascent, you enter a strange
craterous world filled with floating platforms. By looking at a platform
and hitting the fire button you soar through the air In giant leaps, making
your way through Increasingly complex pathways. Later levels Include
disappearing platforms, enemies that must be avoided, and secret
undiscovered passageways. In addition to tracking support, the game also
takes advantage of 3D displays, all of which adds to Ascents unique feel.

4 Descent — Interplay

Ml of the big Doom-style games {Doom, Doom B, Heretic, Dark Force*)
work well with a good HMD, but Interplay's Descent Is probably the best
of the bunch because of Its Inherent 3D environments. Flying through the
dark passageways of mining colonies, you'll run Into a horde of nasty
robots and scores of cool weaponry. Graphics are sharp and colorful,
sound Is loud and aggressive, and the action Is constant. The headset
completes the effect of being there, and the game becomes dangerously
absorbing. It you've got the headset, make sure you go the extra few
bucks and get Gravis' four-button controller or Forte's Cyberpuck to
streamline the interface. Disorientation has never been so much tun

5 Wings of Glory — Origin

Another flight simulator, but this time with plenty of bullets. Although it
requires one monster of a system to run at a decent speed, Wings of
Glory Is the perfect forum for headset action. As a young WW! pilot,
you're send out on combat missions at the controls of several vintage
aircraft. Motion tracking comes In very handy when trying to follow the
(continued on page 44.)

ng special

(continued from page 43.)

motions of an enemy
Intent on making swiss
cheese out of your already
unsteady mode of
transport. Not the visual
feast that Flight Unlimited
offers, but the action
makes it worth a look.

6 Zephyr — New World Computing

In a high corporate future, various companies do battle for rich planets,
not In the boardroom, but In vast arenas. As a free-lance pilot, you'll make
deals with the big boys and step Into an all out 3D combat with the power
of tomorrow's tank, the destructive Zephyr, at your command. Plenty of
high-powered weaponry, scores of different game worlds to explore, and a
game show feel that add up to solid gameplay. The addition of tracking
not only Increases the feeling of Immersion, it also makes It much easier
to keep track of who's attacking and when. Not the most cranial of titles,
but a perfect game for a quick-action fix.

7 Terra Nova — Looking Glass

Although It wont ship until this winter holiday, this li the game for VR

enthusiasts, and ft had to be Included on the list. Basically a futuristic

squad simulation, Terra Neva

gives players a team of men

equipped with the best

killing tools the future has

to offer, on a photo-realistic

game world with a mission

of destruction. There are

fantastic special effects, like

mobile drones that can be

sent to pinpoint enemy

locations, booming

explosions and other sound effects, and breathtaking graphics that will

keep you so distracted for the first few games that you'll spend more time

looking around than you do fighting. This is the future Of VR.

8 Magic Carpet — Bullfrog

A fantasy adventure with a flight simulator feel, Magic Carpet Is one of
the best VR applications currently available for the PC. As a fledgling
magician, players must collect magical power and new spells to expand
their area of control while avoiding the mechanization of enemy
sorcerers. With land-effect spells like Volcano and Earthquake, headset
users can watch from every angle as the ground splits asunder revealing a
new area for them to explore. Great graphics, great sound, great gameplay,
all within a smooth virtual environment.

9 Locus — Zombie

Reminiscent In many ways of the cycle scenes In Tron, Locus Is a realtime
muKlplayer team game that sets players against each other in futuristic
arenas. Each arena Is in the shape of a 3D object (spheres, taurus, etc.),

with the playing field laid out
> ^ . on the Inside surface. This

kTl\ creates an Infinite play area

^iJES^ . t£r_ - *' W| * can na¥e vour opponent

above you, beside you, or Just
about anywhere. Players use
grabbers on the front of their
magnetic cycles to pick up a
ball, and then attempt to
throw the ball into an
opponents goal. Three goals
eliminates the opponent. Like Ascent, this Is a game designed specifically
for use with an HMD, and It shows through immediately.

io Daggerfall — Bethesda

Roleptaying in a virtual world. With full, 3D landscapes, believable
computer personalities with memories, personal ownership of houses,
dungeons, and ships blending together, Daggerfall creates one of the most
realistic gaming universes ever. With the game's HMD support, It's like
walking Into a fantasy novel. If ever a game will make people forget that
there's a real world around them, this Is the one to worry about. Beautiful
graphics for magic and monsters complete the Illusion and leave you
completely spellbound. This Is a dangerous treat for roleptaying fans.

connects to a standard serial port and enables users to move on any
axis with a simple push. The unit sells for about $150 and includes
software support for several of today's more popular first-person
shooters. Logitech's $99 Cyberman is another isometric unit
resembling a standard rotational mouse set on top of a short rod. In
addition to movement, a small battery powers a feedback device that
can be set up to work as a damage or bonus indicator. Logitech also
markets a true 3D mouse selling for less than $ 1 ,000 and which uses
an active tracker to deliver movement on all axes.

Nintendo's Virtual Boy is another attempt to market an HMD
for the masses. Although its lack of tracking keeps the system from
being a true VR device, there's no doubt that this unit will draw a
great deal of media attention toVR technology. For more
information see NG 8 or reviews on page 93.

Speculation about the

future ofVR has brought up very
serious questions — and others
that aren't so serious. But
whenever a technology is
misunderstood, as in virtual reality
or the Internet, public views can
become misconstrued, even when
there aren't any real (or virtual)
threats. Questions about the
health risks of VR, the
psychological effects of long-term isolation, and even possible sexual
abuses of the technology were raised years before simulations had
come close to the home.

On the most basic level, the long-term effects of having two
monitors strapped only inches from your eyes is in question.
Multiple studies have been done on the effects of long-term
exposure, and in most cases it seems the ability of one's eyes to
withstand the screen actually outlasts other basic body functions.
Many users have also reported vertigo and nausea as a side effect of
HMD use. These affects are caused by discrepancies in what the eye
is seeing and what movement the inner ear is reporting.

Headsets weighing more than the head can comfortably support
often intensify these effects, as do lag times between the motion of
the head and the resultant display. Eye strain is also a negative side-
effect. The average person is used to focusing about I I feet in front
of them. If forced to look at objects too close or too far away for
too long, the muscles in the eyes may become fatigued, and the user
can suffer vision problems and headaches. Mark Long, cofounder of
Zombie, clarified the issue in a recent interview with the Electronic
Entertainment magazine: "You're doing something unnatural to your
eyes when you put on a helmet. It tugs on your eyes. If the design is
bad, it could have an effect on the vision of kids whose eyes are still
developing." Many companies have tried tackling these problems in
various ingenious ways, pushing ever closer to the goal of a safe
and comfortable HMD.

Several studies have been run in the attempt to determine the
effects of long-term isolation on human psychology. The question
here is, if a person spends all of their time in a fantasy world, will
they be as able to relate with people in the real world when they
emerge? Here, one must compare the current effects of television,
video games and other forms of entertainment, and the interaction
required in full VR experiences can eliminate a great deal of the
"couch potato" syndrome associated with long-term television use.
As with every new form of entertainment, questions of censorship
immediately arise. Several talk shows have been centered on the

The Vivid Group's Mandela
System brings players into
other worlds without helmets

possibilities of virtual sex or pornography, and once again, this
becomes a question of the individual, not the technology. People
will purchase the type of entertainment that appeals to them. As
long as there is a market for a product, businesses will find a way to
deliver it. It's far too early to begin imposing restrictions on an
industry still in its absolute infancy.

Now that

Vl\ is emerging
as an entertainment
technology, there's
been enormous
public interest in
what the future will
bring. Research
continues at the same labs that have been seen as an integral part of
the creation ofVR, while new businesses open every year hoping to
ride the financial wave if and when the technology takes off. What
elements will be necessary for the future ofVR? Some people seem
to think that the HMD, today's symbol of virtual reality, may be
obsolete before it's even properly built: HDTV (High Definition TV)
will deliver huge pictures with resolution so perfect that you can
see every eyelash on a person's face — huge wall-sized screens
could display incredibly believable virtual worlds without the
drawbacks of a headset.

Another new
possibility (being
worked on byThe
Human Interface Lab of
Seattle, WA) is a system
that fires low-powered
lasers through the eye,
actually "painting" an
image onto the retina.
Resolution-wise, this
technique has the
potential to deliver
Arcade goers will soon get a taste of P ictures that stimulate

some novel VH fantasy in Vlrtuallty's every rod and cone so

newest title, Dactyl Nightmare 2

as to create an image that is
"perfect." Soon researchers hope
to have a unit the size of a pair of
sunglasses which will enable users
to see normally, but can be used as
an augmented reality device that
will throw useful images, such as
maps, written instructions, or the
time, onto the wearer's eye.

Other industries are already
finding countless applications for
VR, and there's no doubt that it has
already become invaluable to
certain industries. The massive
airplane manufacturer McDonald
Douglas has already begun to build
prototypes for new aircraft in a
virtual simulator, saving the
company the cost and danger of building and testing several
different test models. In these virtual constructions, engineers can
look around all of the spaces, check for possible strain areas, and
test the craft in a virtual wind tunnel. Architects are also using VR
to build houses that they can walk around in and examine. If a wall
is in the wrong place, they can use a DataGlove to reach out and
move it to where they want. When everything is as it should be,
the designer can print out a blueprint of what the finished building
should look like. As time wears on.VR will make it possible for
almost any dangerous or financially stressful project to be tested
thoroughly in a computer simulation.

The Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology continues to
research the medical applications ofVR as do companies like
Greenleaf Medical Systems. Tomorrow's doctors may pilot small
remote controlled drones capable of repairing internal injuries
without extensive surgery. Doctors may use headsets to examine
areas of the body from the inside, and gloves to control the
actions of tiny surgical units. DataGloves are already used to give
people who can't speak a way to communicate, and DataSuits are
being used to train athletes and are used in rehabilitation.

The University of Utah is dedicated to finding better ways of
delivering the sense of touch in a virtual environment. Current
projects involve huge devices both expensive and unwieldy, but the
future will bring sleek DataSuits enabling users to feel the pressure
of touching a computer-generated wall or chair. Interaction with
detailed objects will become easier as sensitivity of the devices
increases. Virtual worlds will be detailed enough to enable users to
pick a blade of grass, to open up the watch on their arm, to repair
even tiny problems on a spacecraft far away.

Perhaps the most exciting possibility, however, involves the
future of interpersonal use. The University of Central Florida is
currently involved with several projects that foreshadow a future in
which you could interact with visual representations of others in a
cyberspace. The university's efforts are centered on creating sites
where children can go to interact with a virtual world, and each
other, from any physical location in the world.

But let's cut to the chase: The gaming possibilities are
endless. Virtual Worlds already has units enabling players to do
combat in the Bott/eTech universe with units in two different cities.
Someday you will be able to slip on your HMD and DataSuit and
play games with people all over the world as if they were standing
in your living room with you. .— w->

The future is now accepting applications. ^zi

Ji" you have °^e Of those

Cute dORS ,
thai. ha3i!7K'5ts &£&&

m**

Son t bring it.

Saddle up. "Cause at dawn you ride
the death. pOIiy. And it's gonna be
pure neck- snapping, retina -tearing
speed! You see, SolaT Eclipse™
boasts third generation OJL/ technology
for the highest frame rate ever. That means

tent-pitching V©l0Clty" for our latest space
combat n' carnage convention. But hey, it's more
than some cosmic Sp©©CL tjfXp. Your mission's

to battle a computer gone HAL -with all the
high-tech weaponry your top gunWBX CIT68II1
can handle. And where are you dancin'
this metallic lambada? On the new
Sej^a Satlirn™, of course. Oh yeah, you'll be
smokin 1 mister. But don't bother cracking a
window. It's 32-bits of SOlaX

windburn out there.

Pick from a shiny collection of do-it-yourself death tools. E-Z
High Explosive Plasma Guns, convenient Thermal Tracking
Missiles, handy Pulse Laser Cannons. (Tool belt not included.)

Choose cockpit or chase plane view while screaming thru 3D
texture-mapped worlds. Jagged asteroid fields, fiery planet
surfaces, lava tilled caverns, and other sunny destinations.

Working around the clock, scientists in our speed lab achieved
hyper- realistic Full Motion Graphics. Our secret? Ass-kicking
proprietary engine parallel processing with Ed's 72 Pinto.

Meet Claudia Christian as the tough Major Kelt— She's nursing an intergalactic grudge against
you the size of Uranus. 40 minutes of Full Motion Video let her hone her ball-busting ways.

1 1-800-771-3772 (or game rating information.

I Crystal Dynamic; and Solar Eclipse are trademarks of Crystal Dynamics. Sega and Sega
m are trademarks of SEGA ENTERPRISES, LTD. ©1995 Crystal Dynamics. All rights reserved.

cSL^f^TE^Ll^

Nine months after launch; Saturn! is still regarded by many/as a
second-class system compared to Sony's PlayStation. Is this a
machine that should have stayed inside Sega's R&D labs, or
have developers simply got a lot to learn? NEXT Generation
looks at Sega's efforts to realize Saturn's potential , V

attack

ng hardware

ega now faces a very tough
test. Although it claims
that more than one million
Saturns have sold through
Japanese stores — and the
US version of the machine
already has a head start on its competitors —
the future of the 32-bit system now rests on
the uncomfortably familiar maxim, "software
sells hardware." Put in simple terms, the next
six months is going to be a crucial period for
the Japanese company.

Just as Virtus Fighter singlehandedly sold
the Saturn when it was released in Japan last
November (98% of all owners bought the
game), it was Daytona USA that sowed the
first seeds of doubt in the minds of gamers
eyeing Sega's 32-bit machine. With its clumsy
visuals falling well short of Namco's
PlayStation conversion of Ridge Racer.the
Saturn has recently been the subject of much
skepticism in the game development
community. After all, if Sega's own
programmers can't get the machine to
perform well, what chance has the average
third party developer?

AnxiOUS abOUt the general lack
of confidence in its system, Sega set about
rebuilding the Saturn's credibility. At the Sega
DevCon in the US held earlier this year, the
company showed off its Sega Graphics
Library, developed by R&D division AM2 to
make better use of the machine's 3D graphics
(it was actually touted as a whole new
operating system in Japan). The potential of
the new graphics libraries was authenticated
by a rolling Virtua Fighter 2 animation
that has since been heavily publicized in
Japan as a teaser for the Saturn game
expected later in the year.

AM2 head Yu Suzuki is responsible for the
conversion of Sega's arcade games. Currently
overseeing work on Saturn Virtua Fighter 2,
he concedes that converting high-end coin-op
games does present a considerable challenge:
"The main problem is that we don't really
think about the home version when we're
developing arcade games. It's very important
to make full use of the power of high-end
arcade machines, so converting such games to
less powerful hardware always requires
intricate programming to obtain the best
possible results. Despite this, we always aim
for a perfect translation."

Sega'S riCh heritage of superb
arcade games is undoubtedly its strongest
card. In Japan, a conversion of one of Sega's
coin-ops is guaranteed to sell at least
500,000 copies. However, as the company
continues to strive for higher levels of graphic
excellence with its Model 2 (and, soon, the
PowerPC and Martin Marietta-powered
Model 3) coin-op hardware, the Saturn is
already finding it hard keeping up with the
pace of technological advance.

"We don't think that next generation
software development has been perfected
yet," reckons Sega's Yoshi Ishii, producer of
several Saturn games, including the
spectacular Panzer Dragoon. "There's
enormous pressure on us at the moment to get
great games out, but we're still on the upward
slope of the learning curve."

Unlike the PlayStation, the Saturn does
not contain a dedicated geometry engine for
calculating polygons — instead, the twin
CPUs handle all the calculation, and the
VDP1 chip, in conjunction with the frame
buffer, draws 3D objects to the screen as
distorted sprites. The decision to design the

Sega's Yu Suzuki (top) is supervising the
Saturn conversion of Virtua Fighter 2 (above).
Even at this stage, it represents a vast
improvement over both VFand Daytona USA

Saturn in this way was an attempt to cater for
all needs: the two SH-2s were included to give
the machine some serious computational
power, with the VDP1 processor providing 2D
performance that would outclass anything its
rivals could offer. According to Sega, it was a
question of "balance."

"The SH-2 was chosen for reasons of cost
and efficiency," claims Kazuhiro Hamada,
section chief of Saturn development at the
time of the machine's conception. "The chip
has got a calculation system similar to a DSP
but we realized that a single CPU would not
be enough to calculate a 30 world."

As well as the VDP1 chip, the Saturn has
a second video processor unimaginatively

Initially produced to

demonstrate AM2's new
SGL (Sega Graphics
Library), this early VF2
demo runs at 60 fps at
704x481 — the highest
resolution possible on
the Saturn

ng hardware

Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn is due In
December. So far, Sega has finished the four
most complex characters in the game: Rau,
Pal, Lion, and Shun. With two characters
onscreen, the game runs at around 30 fps

called VDP2. This gives the
-nachine simultaneous
playfields which are drawn
completely independently of
the CPUs — it's possible to
I have the CPUs calculating
the maximum number of polygons, for
example, while the VDP2 draws parallax
backgrounds or even Mode-7-style distorted
ones. This is a combination that the
PlayStation wouid find tough to follow.

The VDP2 chip is seen by many Saturn
programmers as the key to really harnessing
the power of the system. "It's not difficult to
use VDP2," says Kazuhiro Hamada, although

he admits that "it takes plenty of time to find
an effective use for it. There are so many
different ways in which it can be employed."

Scrolling and sprite handling is the area in
which Sega is confident its machine will
outshine the PlayStation. "To be honest,
VDP1 is not powerful enough to replicate the
latest polygon arcade games," concedes
Hamada, "but for sprite and scrolling
games it's fine."

Sega's ST-V (formerly Titan) arcade
board, effectively a low-cost arcade PCB
(printed circuit board) designed around the
Saturn's internals, will make the most use of
this 2D prowess. Although the arcade
hardware is slightly different from the mass-
production machine (and the development
tools are different) this sharing of technology
could prove to be a valuable hit factory for
Sega. But it's not without its problems.

"The conversion from ST-V to Saturn is
not quite as easy as you'd think," confesses
AM2's technical research manager, Tadahiro
Kawamura. "The ST-V board and Saturn
have, of course, some common points and
parts, but conversion from the arcade board to
the Saturn requires that some parts of the
game have to be rep rog rammed."

And, despite

thes

sof

Namco's Tekken ( Tekken 2 is in US arcades)

in both the arcades and on the PlayStation,

this type of

undertaking is

notoriously risky due

to the rate of technical

change in the coin-op

market. What would

assure success is some

quality games that can

take advantage of the

Saturn's sprite-based

hardware.

"The ST-V board is
designed primarily for
fighting games, driving
games, and sports games," elaborates
Kawamura. "We are doing some specific
games for the arcade — after all, there are
some games that don't work so well in the
home — but usually when we release a game
for the ST-V, we are thinking of it making the
journey to the Saturn."

Despite the Saturn's ability to produce
sophisticated 2D, what most developers are
striving to achieve is smooth, fast 3D, and so

Yoshi Ishii is one of SOJ's most respected
software producers. Titles to his credit
Fantasy Zone, Hang On and Out Run

far many have been unimpressed with the
results they've managed to obtain.

Keiji Okayasu, software development chief
at Sega Of Japan, acknowledges that there is

| "People complained about
1 the glitchy polygons in $S$jua ;
I Fighter. For the %eqnel we're
1 using different | > |
B techniques" ji ! 1 !

mounting dissatisfaction among certain
developers — and, more importantly, among
Saturn owners — about the quality of the
machine's 3D features. "A lot of people
complained about the glitchy polygons in
Virtua Fighter during the replays, so for the
sequel we're using different techniques," he
explains. "Making the OS demo was a useful
process, but converting Virtua Fighter 2 will
be a very different task. For example, in the

ng hardware

Inside the Saturn

Taking a screwdriver to the Saturn reveals a lot of silicon. Hidden beneath the CD interface lie the
twin SH-2 CPUs, SCU, SDRAM and RAM (see inset, far right). The CD-ROM mechanism (below right)
contains 4 Mbit of buffer RAM and even more chips...

1 2x Hitachi SH-2s @ 28.6 MHz, 25 MIPS

2 16 Mbit SDRAM for SH2s

3 12 Mbit SDRAM for VRAM and frame buffer

4 512K sound DRAM for 68EC00

5 32K SRAM for battery back-up

6 512K IPL (initial program loading) ROM —
initiates the Saturn's boot-up sequence

7 VDP1 32-bit video display processor, sprite
processor and texture-mapping engine with
dual 256K frame buffers

8 VDP2 32-bit video display processor with
five simultaneous scrolling backgrounds and
two simultaneous rotation fields

9 Processor controller & LSI for graphics

10 Saturn Custom Sound Processor (SCSP).
Contains Yamaha FH-1 DSP (11.3 MHz)and
DRAM controller for sound processor

11 Sound CPU: Motorola 68EC00 @ 22.6 MHz

12 System control unit 914.3 MHz —
connects the Saturn's three buses

13 System manager and peripheral control —
4 bit Hitachi chip including battery back-up

14 Crystal oscillator

15 Integrated circuit clock controller

16 Digital to analogue converter

17 RGB encoder (made by Sony)

18 Cartridge slot

19 Connecter for joypads

20 Connecter for CD Interface

21 SH-1 processor for CD drive

22 MPEG Interface

23 CD drive board interface

24 100-pin CD drive board connecter

25 Double-speed JVC CD-ROM drive with
320K/sec data transfer rate

ng hardware

Sega's Tadahiro Kawamura, manager of AM2's
technical research section, developed the new
SGL development tools. Prior to that he
programmed the Virtua Racing coin-op

demo there's no player control, so it was
possible to get it up and running at 60 fps. It
will be much harder to do that now we have
two characters on-screen."

When Saturn projects like Virtua Fighter
2 and Virtua Cop were
being planned as early as
last year, AM2 chief Yu
Suzuki requested that a
"smarter and more
convenient" set of
development tools be
produced to assist in the
conversion of arcade
games to the Saturn and
help with general
software development. With
Sega of America and
numerous third party
developers, Sega of Japan
carried out research in order to find out
which aspects of the present development
tools should be improved.

This was the impetus behind the
development of the Sega Graphics Library —
produced by Tadahiro Kawamura. Combining
tools for modeling, animation, textures, and
fractal graphics with extra programming

Previously, the Saturn development system included a P-Box, or programmer box (left), instead of a
production Saturn. In the new system the P-Box has been replaced by SOA's CartDev box, which sits below
the Saturn, and a cartridge which interfaces with the PC or workstation. Sega's "official" development set-
* - up (right) includes an SGI Indy, Softimage, CartDev, SNASM2, and A1H2's SGL

information for the central processors
(juggling a main CPU and a sub-CPU is one
element Sega has been especially keen to
address), it should provide a significantly
enhanced development environment.

The Saturn's complex design has done it
very few favors. With seven independent
processors, getting the whole architecture to
operate efficiently is not easy. SN Systems'
Andy Beveridge, designer of the PSY-Q
development system for the Saturn (as well as
its PlayStation equivalent), admits: "It's a
real coder's machine. For those who love to

§ to Saturn is not quite as

I easy as you'd think. Some ,
| parts of the gm? mW i m>'»
I be r

get their teeth into assembly and really hack
into the hardware, the Saturn will probably
pack a few surprises. It's going to take some
time before we'll see what it can really do."
Los Angeles-based developer Scavenger
(responsible for the superb Subterrania on the
Sega and Saturn titles Vertigo and X-Meri)
recognizes the Saturn's strengths, although it

had to develop its own set of libraries to
exploit the hardware efficiently.

"The Saturn is very fast at drawing single
pixels using its processor, while the
PlayStation has to go through its polygon
engine," explained the company's lead Saturn
programmer. "That gives the Saturn
programmer more flexibility. However, the
Saturn does have the tendency to write
polygons that are not seen. Overall, though,
the Saturn has more calculating power
than the PlayStation."

The Saturn can boast superiority over the
PlayStation in CPU throughput. Granted,
Sony's machine is able to calculate more
geometry and display more polygons, but in
terms of computational power the r™^

Saturn definitely has the edge. ^i3

Model 2-based games such as AM3's Sega
Rally are programmed In assembly and use
vastly more powerful hardware than Saturn

ng hardware

The official development system

Cross Products' Managing Director Ian Oliver
(right) and General Manage; Jim Woods. The
company is now owned by Sega

ml<-based Cross Products is the Sega-
owned firm behind the Saturn's
official development system. Formed
by former game coders from Realtime Games
(responsible for classics such as Starstrike

and Oa.,,e. Cor:,r,and) l Cross Products
iidi yrovvn into a 25-person strong company
which specializes in cross-platform
development systems.

"I can remember hating the tools we used
back then," recalls Managing Director Ian
Oliver. "So we joined up with our neighbors,
Vektor Grafix, and set about writing our own
development software."

After designing systems tor

home computers and consoles including the
Amiga, ST, SNES, and Genesis, Cross
Products was bought by Sega Of America
more than a year ago. Since then it has
worked closely with Sega to design an efficient
authoring system for the Saturn.

Cross Products' Saturn system — which,
like all its development software, comes under
the SNASM2 label — uses a mass-production
Saturn (previously it was a bulky programmer
box supplied by Sega) with a switch that
permits the user to toggle between the
Saturn's internal drive or a CD emulator.
Connected to the Saturn via
the cartridge port is SOA's
CartDev hardware which
effectively turns the
production Saturn into a
development station. This, in

Cross Products' development system works
with SOA's CartDev box (left) and also the
company's new Mirage CD emulator (right)

turn, connects to a PC or SGI Indy via SCSI.

While Sega supplies licensees with full
documentation on Saturn hardware, graphics
and sound libraries, Cross Products supplies
the CartDev, CD emulator, and a modified
Saturn, plus the full suite of development
software (including assemblers, linkers, rpo
debuggers, C compilers, etc). vi5

The alternative:

Psy-a

^— J Bristol-based company

program and its proprietary

SN Systems has not

assembler and linker. One of the

HaJei only produced the

most important benefits of the

official PlayStation authoring

system is that it works in a

tools but is also A

|^^ similar wav to the

responsible for a Saturn ^k

T^C* \ company's Psy-(J

development system / ™

P^b \ Maybtation kit, so now

which does away with I *

Ev 1 cie.eiopers aon't nave to

S^Wf*t i rc-!:arn an entirely new
4VA "i/ s>aLcm if they port their

Sega's CartDev box snd \Y

uses a simple cartrlJyc \

which plugs into a

^-— project over to the Saturn.

Personal Computer.

Psy-Q is priced at a similar level to

The Psy-Q system uses SN

SNASM2, with the basic system

System's own C compiler shell

costing around $4,530.

SNASM2 authoring for Saturn

The process for
creating executable
Saturn code using
SNASM2 is
straightforward for
developers. The
diagram (right) shows
the different stages
involved

KILLER INSTINCT DELI

i i

yOU QET IN THE ARCADE

j NES*. A STATE-OF-

BUTCHER SHOfc SERVED

i i

GOOJ & UNCENSpRED MAY
BYIPASS THE QUARTER

lemark of Nintendo of Americ

ACM technology is

what makes the

fighters Look so

life-like...

Plenty^of killer moves

i n eve ry box of K.I.
losers need not apply.

>j 11: 1

AOL @keyword: NOA
www.nintendo.com

All the bodi Ly fluids
are intact. ..so clean up
after yourself will ya?

More killer combos

than you can shake

a stump at .

VERS ALL THE EXCESS

i i

ON YOUR !OWN SUPER
THE-ART 16-BIT
WITH ALL THE SPLAT

i i

HEM. SO | GO AHEAD-
SLOT-- K.I. IS HERE!!

For one or two players.
So find a friend and
proceed to humiliate.

For a Limited
ti me you get a CD""
of the game music
—free cuts to go with
your cheap shots.

What else can we say
'cept it's all on 16-bit
so bag the new system, bud,

f SUPER NIN1END0.

EM T E It TA I II ME II T SYSTEM

J8 Direetfc/e.
If Jt's on raflar,

Intense, 3D text u re-
mapped terrains of reflex-
assaulting canyons and
tunnels. Dramamine™
cocktails, anyone?

Featuring new Save
Game option, cookie-
tossing 360° barrel roll
capabilities, and
life-saving power-ups.

Forget about that intergalactic
"brotherhood CX8X). 'Cause with

Tbtal Eclipse""T ! iii : bo : ,ihe

space -combat simulation for the Sony 9
PlayStation 1 ", there ain't a heapin'
helpin' of hospitality for light years. And
with all those SCJUid-feced aliens
stopping in to party, you're gonna have to
fire up your wicked welcome E MflfBl

wagon and qet this «Jo"~ull wL \9
block party blazing. NSE '

DYNAMICS

Destruction Derby PS-X WarHawk PS-X Urban Decay PC Solar Eclipse Saturn Thunderhawk II PS-X
Twisted Metal PC, PS-X The Darkening PC Rebel Assault II PC Yoshi's Island Super NES Virtua Cop Saturn

"Sui generis" exclusive sneak previews

• more we've checked out
development all over the world
for the best and most innovative
I titles and the teams that are
putting them together. For an up-to-
date examination of the titles that are
available today, be sure to check out
our review section, finals, on page

58 Destruction Derby

Real world physics, fast cars, and lots
of property damage. Nice

65 WarHawk

A 3D-environment shooter that should
appeal to arcade and sim fans alike

66 Urba

Sega brings its first light-gun title
home. Now all it needs is a light gun

ng alphas

Destruction

It's the most impressive PlayStation game yet: State-
of-the-art 32-bit racing combined with hit-and-run,
multicar collision payability

Format: PlayStation n

Derby

Publisher: Sony

Psygnosis

Developer: Reflections

Release Date: November

Origin: UK

nakes

Smoking engines is a
sign that a car is In deep

trouble (sorry, there is no
pit stop). Time to head In
for an easy kill and more
race points

Qestruction Derby rr
no secret of its
gameplay hook:
complete and total
devastation. "You know
what it's like if you're
playing Ridge Racer or Daytona," says
producer Tony Parks. "If it gets to the
stage in a race when you know that
there's no way you can win, you start
fooling around by crashing into the
barriers or trying to knock your
opponents of the track." He's right, of
course, and it's the concentration of this
singular gameplay element in Destruction
Derby that elevates it above the common
herd of generic racing games and into a
class of fun all by itself.

There are three game modes. First,
Stock Car Racing is a simple race option
— score points for finishing as close to
first place as possible. At this stage in

Each point of contact is individually monitored on the status ii
(bottom right). The green lights indicate that so far, your car it

development, there are 12 individual
tracks to race (with no mirror-image
design shortcuts). Second, Smash-Up
Racing is essentially the same game, but
with extra championship points awarded
for totaling other cars and spinning
opponents through 180° or 360" turns
(nudging the rear of an opponent's car
during a turn should do the
trick). Last — and this is
where the game truly
comes into its own — is the
Destruction Derby option.
!^^^^ Up to 20 cars face off in
**V4(H one oval arena, and the last
car still rolling is the
winner. More realistically, it
becomes more of a race
against the clock to see
how long you can survive.
U pon adding to the mix of
a two-player option
utilizing the PlayStation's
linkup cable, two players
can play a game of last-

Every car in Destruction
Derby is built on the
same wire-frame modol,
with individual texture
maps added te give a
sense of individuality

ng alphas

Meet "Psycho," the most
dangerous driver on the
circuit. It's best to just
stay well away from him

man-standing "tag"
(in which all the
opponent cars gun for
player one's car until
he/she tags player
two's car) or
cooperate to
sandwich, bump, and
decoy all the enemy
cars out of the race. A
terrific game option,
and one guaranteed
to extend the game's
life expectancy.

Destruction Derby su*

brainchild of Martin Edmondson, the
head of U K-based development team
Reflections. Having worked closely with
Sony-Psygnosis (the game's publishers)
since initial conception, the early access
to PlayStation development systems
granted to the Reflections team looks set
to result in the most technically
impressive PlayStation game yet. Upon
playing Destruction Derby, the two most
immediately impressive technological
innovations are the incorporation of real
world physics into the cars' movements,
and the fact that up to 20 cars can
appear on screen at any one time — a
feat so far achieved (on a home console)
by only Yu Suzuki's AM2/Saturn
conversion of Daytona USA. And all this
achieved with no sacrifice in graphic
shine or controllability.

Utt 'jyM ,j-y

The inclusion of real-world physics
isn't merely a technical flourish, however,
but a crucial element of the gameplay.
Reflection's Edmondson explains: "If
Destruction Derby wasn't programmed
in the way that it is, it would be useless
as a game. Without the real physics
governing the way the cars behave, it
would be like playing pool when the
collisions are all off — completely
unplayable. The whole point of the game
is that you're not just recklessly driving
into people (although you can do that),
but you're working out ways of squeezing
people off the course, weaving through
crazy situations, and trying to set up
multivehicle collisions which cause the
minimum amount of damage to your car
but the maximum amount to your
opponents." And this can only be
facilitated by making sure the cars
behave with predictable, accurate
cause-and-effect.

So just how complex is the
behavioral model of the cars? "It's not
as complex as the model used in, say,
NASCAR Racing/' explains Edmondson.
"We don't include things like 'drafting'
effects behind cars, we didn't take into
account air flow, or anything like that.
Sure, you can do that sort of thing on
fast PCs, but you're sacrificing the speed
of the game and — to be honest — most
people really don't care whether the
car's engine temperature rises or not."
Producer Tony Parks expounds: "All
the dynamics are as
close to real as we can
get without making the
game unplayable. In the
first few demonstration
versions of the game,
Reflections had
incorporated completely
real physics and the
game was unplayable.
The trouble was — and
still is - that with a

"You're not
just driving
into people
recklessly
(although
you can do
that), but
you're
working out
ways of
squeezing
people off
the course,
weaving
through
crazy
situations
and trying to
set up
multivehicle
collisions"

In a graphic flourish borrowed from Battle Arena Toshindon, a giant Sony
JumboTron broadcasts race footage In realtime to the crowds. The 1-up
(above) and position (right) indicators help you keep track of opponents

ng alphas

joypad, you don't have a proportional
accelerator, It's either full on or off. In a
real car, if you floor the accelerator
while taking a turn, then you're going to
spin out, and with real physics
incorporated, this is what was happening
at every bend in the game."

"It's a compromise between realism
and payability," concludes Edmondson.
"And, in the end, we dealt with just two
parameters; the frictional force between
the cars' wheels and the road, and the
cars' center of gravity as you accelerate
or brake."The three cars available for
sections in the game (Rookie, Amateur,
and Professional) reflect three different
blends of the realism/pick-up-and-go
payability mix. The rookie car is very
difficult to spin out and is basically
glued to the track, whereas the
professional car — in which the center
of gravity of the car is way up front —
slides easily. You can spin it around,
powerslide around corners, slide into
180s, 360s, or whatever you want to do.

"After a while, players find themselves
only taking out the professional car,"
Tony observes. "This does take a bit
longer to master, but is far more
rewarding and maneuverable."

Having experienced the

teeth-clenching realism of the collisions,
spins, and handling of the cars in
Destruction Derby, it is hard to return to
the simplicity of Daytona USA — and
the uncontrollable fishtailing of Ridge
Racer seems unforgivably sloppy in
comparison. Destruction Derby doesn't
merely cough up set-piece collision
sequences, but generates them entirely
on the fly. "You might see something
amusing, say a 10-car collision, and then
you'll never see it again, which is part of
the reason for the replay feature. With
replay you set cameras up to record and
then playback the action from any point
on the course," Edmondson notes.

Each panel of each car's
bodywork Is constantly
redrawn to display damage
(top). The crossroads: not
a safe place to be (right)

.-'■X-:' '■>■-

/20 k

2 43

In Smash-Up Racing
mode, points are scored
not just for finishing high
in the places, but for
spinning, bashing, and
destroying opponents

While all the action
remains on a horizontal
level and cars can't
actually flip over,
bodywork does fly thick
and fast (bottom)

ng alphas

Of course, the most
stylish way to arrive at a
race meet Is in your own
custom truck. It's a
shame, though, that you
can't enter it in the race

Even the damage resulting from
collisions — indicated by status lights on
an onscreen plan of your car's chassis
— is meticulously calculated as a
function of collision angle, speed, and
the other objects/cars involved. The
bodywork of each of the 20 cars is
constantly redrawn to represent the
damage it has sustained, and the
computer keeps tabs on when the
damage is to such an extent that the car
must retire. Incur too much damage to
the front of your car, for instance, and
it's advisable to shift into reverse and
complete the race backward — or at the
very least, try and reduce your ramming
activities to a bare minimum.

Of course, sacrifices have been made
to achieve such a degree of play
mechanics and graphic sophistication.
The only two significant limitations to
the realism of the game are, essentially,
minor omissions. First, although the
graphics are obviously 3D, the action
actually takes place in a 2D world: there
are no hills or valleys on the course, and
all collisions result in ground-level

ricochets and damage — you won't see
cars flying up into the air. This is a bi-
product of Destruction Derby having to
calculate collision effects on the fly, and
not simply accessing prerendered crash
sequences. Second, all the cars are
exactly the same shape — only the
pasting of individual texture-maps
distinguishes each vehicle.

But these are al I considerations for
the sequel to Destruction Derby, and
don't compromise the strength of the
game as it presently stands.

SO hOW haS Reflections been
able to squeeze so much power out of
the PlayStation? "Obviously, we're
writing in C," Edmondson explains. "But
you have to be careful — if you write
sloppy C, then it will compile into slow
code. You have to minimize what you do.

"Using real-
world

physics, the
professional
car's center
of gravity is
way up front.
You can spin
it around,
powerslide
around
corners,
slide it into
180° or 360°
turns, or
whatever
you want
to do"

How the driving
mechanics and handling
of the cars will behave is
now Just a matter of final
tweaking — the physics
are all in place

ng alphas

The graphic detail of
Destruction Derby is
awesome. Background
detail remains high
throughout, with little
draw-in problems

The start of the race is
surely the best time to
try and establish your
presence among the
leaders (top). Sparks fly
up in the air (above)

Also, to keep the speed of the game up we
spent a little time on the optimization of
objects, object detail reduction, polygon
reduction — and although you don't
really see the effect when you play —
objects in the distance becomes simpler
and simpler and simpler."

Have many of PlayStation's hardware
effects been utilized?

"Yes, but again you have to be careful
using the hardware features of the
PlayStation. For example, on the night
level we have 'glowing lights' down the
side of one track. Although the glow
effect is actually a PS-X hardware effect,
it's actually quite slow, so you'll notice
that there are more lights at places of
little background detail, and fewer by the
grandstands or heavy scenery." In this
manner, Reflections has been able to keep
the speed of Destruction Derby almost at
a constant 30 frames per second,
dipping as low as 15 frames per second
only at times of extreme amounts of
objects on screen.

NEXT Generation s

extremely impressed with what it has
seen of Destruction Derby so far. All of
the ingredients are in place for a classic
game — and quite possibly the best
PlayStation title yet. The game is two-
player compatible, it offers a unique
gameplay hook, the implementation of
this angle has been solidly accomplished
— at least so far — and the game has
the graphic sophistication to make it

The status indicator
gives an accurate
representation of the
damage actually visible
on your car (top). In 16th
place, in trouble (above)

really shine. Of course, so much of any
game's success or failure depends on the
crucial last few months and weeks of
painful play-testing and gameplay
tweaking. Expect the final review **-+*%
within the next couple of months. LL «j

"The PlayStation knows the exact
damage to each car, and when it's
too much to continue. After too many
head-on collisions, for example, it's a
good idea to shift into reverse and
try to complete the race backward"

Martin Edmondson, Reflections

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ng alphas

WarHawk:

The Red Mercury Missions

Format:

PlayStation

Sony Imagesoft's previous efforts have
been somewhat less than well received.

Publisher:

Sony Imagesoft

Will WarHawk be a turning point?

Developer:

SingleTrac Entertainment
Technologies

Release Date: November

Origin: US

What these shots can't
show is the game's
control — the gameplay
just feels right

s this Sony's Panzer
Dragoon slayer?
WarHawk is another
example of the
PlayStation doing
1 what it does best:
delivering texture-mapped 3D worlds.
This true 3D point-of-view shooter pits
you, the pilot of the experimental fighter
WarHawk, against the forces of the
mysterious Kreel, your typical madman
bent on world conquest.

You'll face both air-to-air and air-
to-ground combat across five
impressively rendered levels all
completely free of tracks. One cool
thing is that some of the larger enemies
you face aren't just giant texture-
mapped boxes — you actually fly inside
them, Descent style. The fully explorable
worlds give the game a simulator look,
as does the cockpit mode (there's also a
third- person, behind-the-ship
perspective), but the feel of the game is
totally action orientated. Game contro!
looks good, with a easy flight-sim style
movement (barrel rolls, anyone?), and a
missile auto-lock that frees you from
having to dive bomb every target.
Static screen shots can't really capture
the impressive sensation of the motion
the game delivers. A two-player
cooperative mode in which the second
player takes up copilot and gunner
duties (a la Star Wars Arcade) is
under consideration.

Two of the more visually intense
aspects of the game are the radical
"swarm" missiles and the interior
sequences of the Gauntlet level, with
pyramids and beams shooting out of
both the floors and walls. The canyon

Though these shots look
like cut scenes, they're
screen shots from the
game. Notice the radar
the upper right

sequences, with excellent
reflections off the water, are
also visually stunning. And
the ominous soundtrack fits
the elegant scenery and
compelling gameplay quite
well, lending a kind of
"twilight struggle" feel
to the game.

With 15 minutes of FMV
cut-scenes and fewer polygon
glitches than were found in
some of the earlier
PlayStation titles, WarHawk
definitely looks to keep the
quality of PlayStation games
high, and perhaps create some shine on
Imagesoft's current badly p-t.

tarnished reputation as well. "-\J

ng alphas

Urban Decay

Realistic visuals, atmospheric
environments, graphic violence... Urban
Decay is just like last year's stunning
Ecstatica, only more so

_ )

down ml

esn't sh

Sunning
Decay it

creants in dark alleys is a satisfying experience. Urban
away from realistic depictions of death

Format:

PC CD-ROM

Publisher:

Psygnosis

Developer:

A Spencer
Studios

Release date:

Summer 1996

Origin: UK

ollowing the success of
Ecstatica, Andrew
Spencer, director at A
Spenser Studios, is
hard at work on its
1 spiritual sequel, Urban
Decay. The game uses the revolutionary

ellipsoid engine that drove Ecstatica but
transfers the action to a violent US
ghetto at night.

" Ecstatica was just a testing ground
for the system — we always had plans to
take it further/' reveals Spencer. He has
now estabiished a dedicated game
development studio and taken on several
extra staff — five animators and a
background artist are on the project.

The benefits are already apparent.
When Urban Decay is complete, it will
include over 2,000 individual camera
angles compared to Ecstatica's 230. It
also features SVGA graphics and an
increased number of ellipsoids, which
enables greater detail and realism —
characters now smile and grimace, and
their hands open and close when they
grasp an object.

When Psygnosis presented Urban
Decay at E\ the game's plot was still
under discussion. "It's gone out of the
window since then," admits Spencer.
"Although there will be speech, dialogue,
and plot, the emphasis will fall on the
gameplay and action." Ecstatica's

This sorrowful thug is
dispatched by kicking
him off the gantry (top).
Another attacker downed
(above), this time with
your trusty switchblade

The clever movie-like use
of camera angles in
Urban Decay could well
make Alone In The Dark
look relatively plain

There's no doubt that violence will constitute a major part of Urban Decay. The game will
almost certainly receive an -R" rating when it is released next si

ng alphas

You scale an old water tower (top left), only to find a chopper-borne SWAT
team waiting (top right). Jump off and then hang on for dear life

Ecstatica

For those not familiar
with Andrew Spencer's
previous game, EcstatiC3
is an unusual combination
of interactivity and
cinematic scenes. The
player has freedom of
action for the vast
majority of the time, but
certain events trigger set
scenes. But unlike in
most games, these
sequences are not
prerendered; instead, the
geometry of the
character's actions (for
example, climbing a wall)
is called up and then
rendered in realtime. The
secret of the game's
success is that these
intermissions are short,
with the player losing
control for no more than
a few seconds.

mixture of action and cinematic style
distinguished it from ordinary
adventures, but the game was criticized
for being over too quickly. Spencer
intends Urban Decayto avoid falling
into this trap.

Although Alain Maindron (the sole
artist on Ecstatica) has now parted
company with the project, his gory
legacy continues. "There is biood in
Urban Decay," acknowledges Spencer,
"but it will be more underplayed. I'm
not saying it won't be a violent game,
because it will. Most people will play it
as a violent game and enjoy that aspect
of it. The appeal of Reservoir Dogs is
interesting and in some ways
comparable. In Urban Decay you're
pressing the button to blow someone's
head off. And everyone seems to like
that, not just sick people. People just
have pent-up aggression."

U Itimately, though, violence begets
violence and the player's actions
inevitably return to haunt him. "If the
player acts like a complete psychopath,
he'll be treated like one," says Spencer.

The number of ellipsoids used In Urban
Decay is double Ecstatica' s count. The
result in much greater realism

In Urban Decay's dark alleys, retribution
comes in the form of rival gangs, SWAT
teams, and traps. However, that doesn't
mean the game will turn into some kind
of anti-violence morality tale.

Andrew Spencer is anxious to pursue
his own path toward that elusive goal —
the interactive movie. However, rather
than merely present a series of
pregenerated sequences, he's determined
to take the best aspects of the film world
and add the elements of control offered
by videogames. From what NEXT
Generation has seen, he's heading ^-^n
in an interesting direction. ^=J

ng alphas

Solar Eclipse

As usual, Crystal
Dynamics is spending a
great deal of time on the
prerendered intro

Format: Saturn

Publisher: Crystal

Dynamics

Developer: Crystal

Dynamics

Release Date: TBA

Origin: US

educed by the power
and sales potential of
the Japanese consoles,
Crystal Dynamics has
ventured outside its
fairfy monogamous
relationship with the 3D0.TTie first
evidence of its shifting allegiances is
Solar Eclipse, which will be released on
both the Saturn and PlayStation.

In terms of structure and gameplay,
Solar Eclipse is best described as an
enhanced version of the 3D0 blaster
Total Eclipse. Plot-wise, though, it's
more like a prequel, with the player
having to destroy a renegade computer
called The Grid. The action features
Crystal's now familiar, highly colored,
smoothly scrolling, multilevel terrain,
seen in Total Eclipse and Off-World
Jnterceptor.The Saturn's extra power
should enable additional effects to be
added and the frame rate to be upped.
Sandwiching the action sequences
are Shock Wave-style cinematics, used
to develop the plot. The game is hardly
original, but Crystal Dynamics' slick
presentation should ensure that the 40
minutes of prerendered footage is highly
polished (if uninteractive).

With Saturn now on the streets in the
US, both Sega and Crystal Dynamics
need an early, visually attractive title to
persuade customers to part with their
cash. Both are hoping that Solar ___
Eclipse is the game for the job. \\ li

After investing mainly in 3D0
development/ Crystal Dynamics is now
broadening its horizons

Action-packed scenes like this (above)
reveal Crystal Dynamics' attempts to
achieve the same level of excitement
that characterized Total Eclipse and
Off-World Interceptor on the 3DO

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ng alphas

Thunderhawk

Three-dimensional, first-person shooters are
becoming increasingly common. Does Thunderhawk
II have what it takes to stand out from the pack?

Format:

Saturn, PC
PlayStation

Publisher:

US Gold

Developer:

Core

Release Date:

November

Origin: UK

hunderhawk, released
in the US as AH3-
Thunderstrike, is
regarded by some to be
the best Sega CD title
1 of all time. Now Core
is looking to repeat that success on at
least three platforms (Saturn,
PlayStation, PC) with Thunderhawk II.
The game, a first-person perspective
helicopter shooter, has been upgraded in
several significant ways.

The biggest changes are the
ones you'd expect from a game on a
next generation system. Everything is a
256-color texture-mapped polygon —
from the fractal generated 3D
landscape to the plethora of enemies.
And the polygon mesh nature of the
terrain permits you to fly inside rural
structures without pauses in gameplay.

The view Isn't much different from the many other first-person shooters
coming out presently, Core is betting on the gameplay

The radar screen, mapview, and damage screen keep things manageable.
Though this shot doesn't do the graphics justice, they're much Improved

The best part of the original was the
compelling gameplay, and Core has
expanded that for the new version. There
are six separate missions In the game,
each of which is broken down into four
operations, for a total of 24 combat
sorties. You've got a choice of six pilots,
each with different stats (reaction,
intelligence, health), or you can make a
custom pilot. Also under consideration
is a two-player "gunner" mode, where
the second player controls the guns and
the first the helicopter. The helicopter
options have also been increased; you
have a choice of three. There's the
Scout, which is fast but with weak
armor; the Supply, heavily armored but
slow (good for carrying troops); and
finally there's the G unship, which has
medium speed and armor.

With a wide variety of mission
locations, from towns to canyons and
even through underground tunnels, this
looks to deliver all the excitement of the
original. If Core can make Thunderhawk
II as far above other Saturn fare as the
original was above it's Sega CD
brethren, the company could have p-w^
a major hit on its hands. ^JJ

Even in these early
screen shots, explosions
look really cool

ng alphas

Twisted

New developer Singletrac's debut is a
PlayStation combat-driving game with a
powerful engine under its hood

Format:

PlayStation
PC CD-ROM

Publisher:

Sony Imagesoft

Developer:

Singletrac

Release Date

Late 1995

Origin: US

■■■^■■j ith
ft V V J graphic environment
■ fill similar to Gametek's
ft A ■ Doom- inspired PC
^^^^^^H driving game
^^^^^^^ Quarantine, Twisted
Metal doesn't scream innovation. But as
one of the first titles from Singletrac, a
firm founded by former employees of
graphics pioneer Evans & Sutherland,
the title merits some attention.

Set in a smog-filled, crime-ridden
Southern California of the future,
Twisted Metal has five different 3D
worlds and 12 enemy vehicles to take on
— described by the developers as "high-
tech, state-of-the-art, sinister and
deadly" but looking remarkably like a
checkered cab, an old ice-cream van, a
truck rig, a police car, and a few other
aging American icons.

There are three exterior views in
addition to the basic driver's-eye

Metal

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Twisted Metal welcomes careful drivers, but It looks like It's more fun to
aim your vehicle straight at the opposition with all guns blazing

perspective: behind the car, rear
three-quarters, and overhead. There's
also a head-to-head linkup option and a
full range of Doom-esque weapons,
including missile launchers, flame
throwers, and machine guns. Unlike
Quarantine, which had an exploration
and adventure sfant, this is a belligerent
and straightforward arcade battle to the
death: You progress from area to area in
order to destroy enemy vehicles.

Twisted Metal looks much more like
a PC title than a PlayStation one — it's
far less tightly structured than pure
driving games like Ridge Racer.
However, the multiplayer option should
make it one of the better US fT^O

releases this year. ^z$

There's a

full range of

Doom-esque

weapons,

including

missile

launchers,

flame

throwers, and

machine guns

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SEGA
SATURN « a ys'

^ g— Mlaim

MIDWAY

MS/TOEP^^

The latest addition to the world
renowned Psy-O family of advan
software development systems.

The system consists of a custom made cartridge plug-in

Ige port of any unmodified retail Sega
n Development target and connects
tdustry standard PC compatibles via our tailor made
SCSI adaptor card capable of handling data transfer rates
In excess of I Megabyte per sec.

The Standard system software includes comprehensive
emulators for the 'Saturn' DSP and SHZ chips. Ideal for
benchmarking tricky code to make sure of getting the best
possible performance from your code.

The system now has the option of powerful 'stand-alone'
CO emulation hardware to allow you to prototype your
CD master at hard-disk speeds without recourse to expensive
and time consuming CD-R media.

The Psy-Q CD emulator provides full CD-ROM, CD-XA,
and CD-DA facilities and comes complete with our
standard suite of ISO9660 maintenance tools.

The emulator hardware is supplied ready installed inside a

Sega Saturn console complete with modifications for full NMI

support. Included with all systems are some of the most

advanced development tools currently available for

the console.

Including -

TWo RISC SHZ Assemblers

• compatible with standard C compilers including the
popular Freeware Gnu C {supplied)

• a superfast 68000 assembler

A state of the art Plat Model Debugger
featuring -

• true 'Source Level' simultaneous Debugging for both SH2
CPUs AND 68000

• multiple user defined windows which can be tied to any of
the three processors, and mixed together on any of up to

10 virtual screens

• extensive C facilities allow local variable scope
tracking and our full C data browser allows you to open
up and modify local and global complex data structures,
unions, bitfields etc.

High Speed Linker and Librarian with extensive link-
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For further Information please contact:-

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Tel: +44(0)15) 282 3000
Fax: +44 (0)151 282 3300

ng alphas

The Darkening

The colorful and the bizarre all meet In the Sinner's Inn, a futuristic bar
where you, "space dude" Cllve Owen (upper right), search for your identity.
The Darkening* universe is wholly different from Wing Commander's

The Darkening features
the excellent flight sim
qualities of the Wing
Commander series

s Hollywood firms sign
off precarious seven-
digit budgets in search
of the perfect
"interactive" formula,
Origin Systems has
already blazed its own path with the
successful Wing Commander series.

Starring Christopher Walken (The
Deer Hunter, Pulp Fiction) and John
Hurt (1984, Alien), The Darkening
builds on Wing's formula, employing the
first-person perspective (using English
actor Clive Owen from the Chancer
series) to lead you through a part flight-
sim, part graphic-adventure,
philosophical search for your identity as
alien forces plan your death.

Erin Roberts, the game's 25-year-old
executive producer,
(yes, he's Chris
Roberts' brother) has
envisioned a darkly
complex, organic,
eight-planet system.
Multi-option gameplay
enables you to take
flight as a trader of
various goods, to
merely flying around
and blasting people in
your way (with the aid
of wing men to fight

Origin heads to the U K's Pinewood
Studios to shoot a graphic adventure in
the successful Wing Commandersty\e

Of the eight planets you'll discover, "Bex"
(above) is the Luddite of the pack, and is 8
major exporter of foods, including beer

Format: PC

Publisher: EA

Developer: Origin

Release Date: February

Origin: UK

off enemies), or to play private detective
using e-mail, public records, and word of
mouth to take the path to your real
identity, a "surprise" twist in the end.

"The technology we're using makes
Wing Commander look like a dinosaur,"
said Roberts, whose $5-million budget is
the highest for a videogame (though
Wing 4 is rumored at $7 million). The
game will use SVGA graphics, accesses
a more compact, and much faster engine
than the one used in Wing 3, rendering
graphics on-the-fly.

True payability of interactive movies
is still questionable, and while The
Darkening is only 15% complete and
has the Wing series to live up to, it's got
everything to make its forebears <«
shiver in their knickers. *-tM

Christopher Walken (top)
and John Hurt (above)
are two of the biggest
stars to take the
"Interactive" plunge

ng alphas

Rebel

Can awesome graphics and one of the most valuable
licenses on the planet give Rebel Assault lithe
success of its predecessor, despite mundane gameplay?

Blue screen effects —
pioneered in Star Wars
— are used throughout
the entire game

Assault II

Format: PC CD-ROM
Publisher: LucasArts
Developer: LucasArts
Release Date: November
Origin: US

here's a new
installment of Rebel
Assault coming. And
because this is the first
time anyone besides
George Lucas has
filmed live actors in the Star Wars
universe, Star Wars fans may be more
interested in the cut scenes than the
gameplay. Unlike in Star Wars, where
actors lined up to get filmed in an X-
Wing cockpit, the action in Rebel
Assault II was shot in front of a blue
screen, with computer-generated
backdrops and effects added later.
Pretty standard multimedia stuff, but if
George Lucas gives his stamp of
approval, you can be sure these are cut
scenes you'll want to watch.

Set in the Galaxy's Bermuda
Triangle, the Dreighton Nebula, Rebel
Assault II' s plot focuses on two
characters from the first game, Rookie
One and Ru Muleen, who discover that
the Nebula's mysterious properties may
be the result of Imperial treachery.

Gameplay looks to follow that of
LucasArt's first effort closely, with an
enhanced game engine providing lots of
track flying, either in the cockpit or
behind the ship, as well as some ground-
based laser blasting. You know the drill.

LucasArts is following the time-
honored sequel formula with Rebel
Assault II — you find that one thing
that works and give people more of it.
And it looks like the enhanced game
engine, visually enticing graphics, and
compelling storyline will enable
the company to pull it off.

Richard Green's artistic team has delivered another visually stunning
product with Rt

COMING SOON!

111 III!*.- ^L A

^m%^ v&^z- c®»aw^

A Looking Glass

Technologies

Production

g Glass Technologies, inc. All n

ng alphas

Yoshi's Island: Super
Mario World 2

Format: Super NES
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: October 2, '95
Origin: Japan

"By spending
almost four
years in the
creation of
this game, we
have included
a lot of magic
tricks. The
more you
play the
game,
the more
surprises it
will give you.
As far as the
quantity and
quality of
game ideas
are

concerned,
Yoshi's Island
is second
to none"

— Shigeru Miyamoto, NOJ

t's been a long time in
coming, but the sequel
to the best Mario
game ever released has
finally made its way to
the Super Nintendo.
While the game doesn't have the same
addictive feel as its predecessor, Yoshi's
Island does contain a score of new
features that should keep fanatics happy
for hours on end.

In a surprise twist on the original
title, you take on the role of Yoshi this
time, as he attempts to escort baby
Marios through a familiar world of
weak-necked monsters and twisting
pipes. If Yoshi takes a hit from an
enemy, the fledgling plumber on his back
will begin to float away, screaming for
help in a pitiful wail that will touch even
the hardest hearts. Players must
recapture the wayward tots within three
or four seconds or watch helplessly as a
group of evil wizards whisks Mario
away for unknown evil purposes (early
rumors hint at Captain Lou Albano and
a disco barbecue).

To help keep aiiofthis tram

happening, Yoshi's got some unusually
impressive new tricks up his spotted
sleeve. When Yoshi eats certain enemies,
he is able to lay up to six eggs that
follow him duckling-style through the
stage. By pressing a button, players are
given a crosshair that moves around the
screen, targeting different enemies.
Pushing this button again fires one of
your stockpile of eggs, obliterating
anything in its way. Even without eggs,
Yoshi can attack in the time honored
method of jumping on the heads of

Miyamoto returns to bring Super NES
owners what may be one of the most
eagerly anticipated sequels of all time

enemies (a tactic that still has yet to
serve me in a barfight). Bosses are big
and menacing, in many ways similar in
challenge to Mario World's overlords,
and requires players to master more and
more advanced uses of Yoshi's various
skills as well. Addictive bonus levels
keep the game from getting too
repetitive, and, in fact, are often as
much fun to play as the game itself. As
usual, control is fluid and smooth,
gracefully achieving the easy-of-use
factor that's made the series so popular,
without ever becoming uninteresting.

Shigeru M iyamoto, cng

2) the creator of Mario, lent his rather
precious talent to the title by acting as
producer, heading up the creative end of
the process as well as piecing together
the work done by the rest of Nintendo of

tffift

Once Yoshi has laid his
dangerous eggs, they
follow along in duckling
fashion until thrown

ng alphas

Many scenes are
reminiscent of earlier
Mario titles. Man, those
bad guys sure can build
castles can't they?

The intimidating yet cute look of most of the game's enemies show a strong Shigeru Miyamoto influence

These collapsing walls
are one of the few
obvious examples of
FX2 chip technology

Many of the bonus
stages are as much fun
to play as the game Itself

Japan's team. In another more recent
interview with NEXT Generation, he

explained this Yoshi Island's appeal.

"By spending almost
four years in the
creation of this
game, we have
included a lot of
magic tricks. The
more you play the
game, the more
surprises it will give
you. Just as an
example, there are
more than 130
different enemy
characters in this
game... As far as the quantity and
quality of game ideas are concerned,
Yoshi's Island is second to none."

The technology of th e can

is rather curious in and of itself. This is
the first N intendo title to sport the
Super FX2 chip designed by Argonaut
(which was originally intended to be the
Super FX chip, but was dropped by
Nintendo at the last stages of
development). Game graphics are very
simple, a stark change from the brilliant
visual effects of Donkey Kong Country
and Killer Instinct, but the feeling of
nostalgia that accompanies your return
to Mario World makes the two-
dimensional cartoon representations
seem intuitively right. Both music and
sound are another step sideways,

delivering all of the LooneyToon-esque
wackiness of the original Mario series,
without ever really stretching into
especially new or creative areas.

Due in October, Yoshi's Island looks
like it could be everything that Super
Mario Worldwas to gamers, but not
much more. With Nintendo's Ultra 64
release headed this way in April '96,
we sincerely hope that Nintendo makes
the effort into delivering a Mario title
that features a little more flash and
a lot more originality than has — w -,
been put into this. LLM

If you take a hit, you'll only have seconds to recover baby Mario before h
is permanently put to bed. Notice the peaceful yet surrealistic scenery

ng alphas

Let the games

The Genesis led the 16-bit race due, in great part, to its
superior sports games, but can Sega continue to dominate
this genre? Or will Sony steal its home-field advantage?
NEXT Generation takes a look at the 32-bit sports arena

begin

The increased

processing

power and

CD-format of

the new

32-bit

machines

brings

potential

for more

sophisticated

artificial

intelligence

■■^HBH ore than 30% of all
■ i W , I software titles sold for
I 1 T j I the 16-bit market were
I I J I sports games.
^^^^^^J Demographically
^^^^^^^ speaking, sports
gamers tend to be older than the
mainstream; these are sports fans who
feel far more at home leading the
Madden All-Star team to a John
Madden Football superbowl appearance
than playing, say, a cute platform game.
Logic would suggest that as the next
generation of 32-bit consoles remains
more expensive than its 16-bit
predecessors, it will attract an older
user-base. And that means it's an
audience demanding yet more sports
games, but bigger, better, and smarter
games than ever before.

The increased processing power and
CD-format of the new 32-bit machines
brings potential for more sophisticated
artificial intelligence (AI), far more
realistic visuals (that's not just number
32 — that's actually a texture-mapped
recreation of O.J. Simpson comin'at
ya), and a wealth of statistics, authentic
team shirts, finely-detailed re-creations
of famous stadiums and arenas, plus, of
course, all the TV-commentary style
FMV trimmings that we've come to
know and skip quickly past.

So who's working on what?

Electronic Arts dominates

the 16-bit sports game business,
responsible for more than 50% of all
16-bit sports software. It should come
as no surprise then that several
companies have formed sports divisions
taking aim at EA's marketshare. Crystal
Dynamics, Interplay, Psygnosis, Ocean,
Konami, and Data East are all placing
their respective bets on the ever-growing
sports market. Not to mention the
continuing and growing attacks by Sony

Imagesoft, Sega Sports, Accolade, and
Acclaim. What al I this fierce
competition hopefully means to the
sports gamer is raised quality in
graphics and gameplay, and a greater
variety in titles.

Chip Lang, director of marketing at
EA Sports, points to the company's own
FIFA Soccer on the 3D0 as the tip of
the iceberg. "It's just an example of the
kind of environment you can expect in
the next generation of sports games,"
he enthusiastically promises.

screen shot
from Madden
'08 for Super
NES (left)
compared to a
screen from
Madden '96 for
PlayStation
(top). This is
only the first
PS X football
title, expect
more and
batter to come

ng alphas

£KS

Sega's World Series
Baseball features a
variety of camera angles
placing you down at field
level, up in the stands, or
even has you follow the
ball. Any way you look at
it, the game looks hot

Crystal Dynamics' 3D
Baseball looks great, but
how its "looks" translate
to gameplay is the trick

Interplay's new VR
Sports division Is
pushing VR Baseball '95
out the door first, and if
the high-end workstation
graphics hold up on the
PlayStation and Saturn,
It'll bo a treat

Sega Sports' Chris Cutliss believes
that "The TruVideo [FMV] capabilities
of the new machines are a big part of
the future of sports games." He refers to
the highly-successful practice of dressing
up sports games as TV shows, a trend
that seems destined to continue.

What follows is a brief round-up of
who's working on what versions of what
sports. So grab that beer, open those
pretzels, and pull up the couch...

Baseball. Previously, the baseball
game was restricted to one perspective,
either the high overhead view or the tight
pitcher/batter view. The 32-bit systems
are capable of handling a plethora of
"camera" options, often panning on the
fly to get up close and personal. Sega of
America's attractive conversion of the
Japanese Saturn game Greatest Nine is
World Series Baseball (see review on
page 89), which uses four different
camera angles pitched around its
texture- mapped field.

Expect all player movement to be
motion-captured from now on. Crystal
Dynamics has developed a new method
of motion capturing that enables the
player to control an ultra-reatistic
character. The first implementation of
this technique is 3D Baseball for both
the Saturn and PlayStation. Meanwhile,
Interplay's new VR Sports division and
Konami are both heading in a similar
direction with their baseball games, also
available for Saturn and PlayStation.

What advances will be made in terms
of gameplay, however, remain unclear.
Baseball is a notoriouslt difficult
videogame to "get right," or in other
words, to perfect. And so far no one is
promising the much-needed revolution in
batting/pitching mechanics.

NHL Ail-Star Hockey for
the Saturn has all the
views, but can the
gameplay ever catch up
with EA's NHL efforts

The early shots of NHL '96 look incredible, and their track record with
gameplay makes this one hotly anticipated title

Other baseball titles planned are
Acclaim's Frank Thomas Big Hurt
Baseball (all platforms), EA's Triple
Play series (all platforms), and Data
East has signed on Blue Sky Software
(makers of the World Series games for
Genesis) to make several sports games
in '96. Simulation fans will be glad to
know that players' licenses, stats,
improved AI, and all the usual options
are planned for each game.

H OCkey. EA's NHL series is
arguably the most exact sports
simulation ever, but the days of fat little
skaters and a strict overhead view are
over. Sega's Alt-Star Hockey (Saturn)
gives you the ability to switch your view
of the action on the fly, zooming closer
or panning out for a wider look of the
rink as the game continues. EA Sports'
team is hard at work on NHL '96
(Saturn, PlayStation) which promises to
feature the same excellent and reliable
gameplay, along with a much improved
look. The gritty realism of the game
(from charging defensemen to easily
injuring veterans), is a feature that's
going to be amplified.

Sony Imagesoft's NHL Face Off
(PlayStation) will feature players'
numbers and names on the backs of
their jerseys, along with four different
playing perspectives. Again, all three
titles will benefit from real professional
players, options, and — obviously —
enhanced graphics.

FOOtball. Byjusttakinga
cursory look at 3D0's Madden Football,
you get a notion of 32-bit videogame

Forget all about ESPN
National Hockey NigM
and get ready for NHL
Face Off for the Sony
PlayStation

This player illustrates
the potential of uniform
texture- maps flowed
over motion-captured
character animation

ng alphas

NFL Gameday for the
PlayStation has the first
actual game screens for
a 32-bit football game

NBA Action for the

Saturn is using a similar

perspective, but all

we've seen thus far are

pretty SGI images

perspective puts the
player right on the court
in Crystal Dynamics'
Basketball '9S {Slam 'N'
Jam for 3D0)

fit 'W<

Sports newcomer
Psygnosis puts in Its
effort of capturing its
home country's sport (UK)
with Pro Sport Soccer

football's potential. EA's next
Madden game (PlayStation,
Saturn) will feature motion-
captured generic players, then
artistically touched up to look
like their real world
counterparts. The zooming
camera permits downfield
passing and close-in juking,
while the superior processing
speed enables a much more
intelligent computer opponent to take
you out even faster than before. Sony
Imagesoft's NFL Game Day
(PlayStation) features different-sized
players (linemen are big, punters are
small), three playing perspectives, and
an entirely new updated playbook
featuring all the newest NFL plays.
Sega Sports' Prime Time Football
(Saturn) is still in such early
development that Sega staff members
couldn't show NEXT Generation
reporters any material at this stage.
Expect the same on-the-fly camera
zooming feature as Sega's other sports
titles — and a fierce battle between it
and EA's 32-bit Madden for position as
first team starter.

Basketball. The basketball
genre changed dramatically and forever
this spring with Crystal
Dynamics' Slam 'N' Jam '95
for the 3 DO. The on-court view,
scaling, and huge, detailed
players drag gamers into the
court like never before — it
truly is an outstanding
testament to both 3D0's power
and Crystal's rapidly increasing
expertise. Crystal is creating an
enhanced PlayStation and
Saturn version that promise to look
even more attractive and will feature
real NBA players.

Taking a similar approach is Sega
Sports with NBA Action (Saturn) —
replete with its own on-court close-up
view. Both EA (PlayStation/Saturn)
and Sony Imagesoft (PlayStation) are
also planning hoops titles, but both
companies are reluctant to release too
many details at this early stage.

SOCCer. One year ago, FIFA for
3D0 set the gaming world on its ears
when it revolutionized what was
thought possible in both the soccer
game genre and on the 3D0. Now an
updated, improved version is planned for
PlayStation and Saturn.

Sega Sports' Worldwide Soccer is
already out, featuring fast arcade action

with on-the-fly camera changes.
With this title you can (somewhat
confusingly) control both camera
and players simultaneously: Zoom
the camera out to spot an open
wing receive a long pass, then
move in tight to kick for the corner
of the net — at least in theory.

Additionally, the amazing Sega
arcade game Virtua Striker shows
exactly the kind of experience
developers are shooting for, and it will
be converting it to the Saturn in 1996.
On the Sony front, Psygnosis has
captured the beautiful look with
texture-mapped polygon players in its
game PowerSports Soccer
(PlayStation), but as with any sport, the
real test is the gameplay, and how best
the free-flowing and technipue-based
sport converts to a home videogame.

O 1 1. The golf sim has always been a
staple of the PC gaming industry. Now,
with the expectation of older players
joining the console market, its appeal is
sure to spread. Sega's Pebble Beach
Golf Links (Saturn) features sharp
graphics and FMV to bring the
treacherous Bayside course to
the home. EA Sports' easy-to-
play PGA 96 (PlayStation,
Saturn) pits you against other
pro's (whose swings are filmed
on a blue screen and then
incorporated) on a well-drawn
course, and epitomizes what
EA Sports hopes its popular
series can bring home.
It's hard to say how
gameplay can improve, other than from
more sophisticated course terrain and
more complex surface textures.

Ill COnClUSiOn, the Genesis
was the superior sports machine in the
16-bit market, largely due to EA's and
Sega's own output. But what system
will achieve sports fans' most favored
status in the 32-bit age?

Sega can confidently be expected to
defend its highly profitable niche from
both rival systems (PlayStation and
3 DO) and other Saturn developers.
Meanwhile, Sony Imagesoft has turned
over a new leaf by ridding itself of the
ESPN ficense and claims to be now
working on solid gameplay instead of
padding out gratuitous licenses.

But, as EA's Chip Lang concludes,
iV No matter which system you own,
today's sports fans are going to get
some great sports games." _.

We say bring 'em on. 4^5

Sega Saturn's Worldwide
Soccer I* already out and
enables you to c
views on the fly

Combining smooth
graphics and Full Motion
Video are what Sega
hopes will make Pebble
Beach Golf Unk* a hit

EA's PQA '96, possibly
the greatest golf series
ever made, Is getting a
32-bit fecelrft that could

in the clubhouse

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Virtua Cop

From close-up. the quality of detail in both Virtua Cop's backgrounds and
characters is impressive. Sega Is set to release a Saturn lightgun for use
with Virtua Cop In time for the game's launch

m f. - »-

. Virtua Cop enables easy
differentiation from the
the good (In white), the
bad, and the ugly

ega's most recent
Virtua title gave the
light-gun genre the 3D
polygon treatment but
left the gameplay
firmly in the mode of
Lethal Enforcers and Mad Dog McCree.
The two-gun arcade machine will retain
the high graphic standards of the
previous Virtua games, and the Saturn
conversion in development looks as
faithful as that of Virtua Fighter.

Although Saturn Virtua Cop is only
20% complete, almost all the polygon
data models for the levels and the first-
level characters are finished. In these
shots, 70 to 80% of the textures have
been applied to characters' bodies and
faces and, like Virtua Fighter and
Daytona USA, logos and other details
are mapped onto the backgrounds.

The first level of the version shown
here would be fully playable were it not
for the fact that it's missing its boss. The
main problem facing developer AM2
right now is speed — the game suffers
from slowdown at several points.
However, AM2 promises that the Saturn
conversion will feature the same number
of enemies as the coin-op.

What AM2 and Sega can't promise
is anything more substantial than a few

AM2 converts its gun-toting coin-op for
the Saturn, but will the simplistic
gameplay cut it in the home market?

Format:

Saturn

Publisher:

Sega

Developer:

Sega/AM2

Release Date:

January

Origin: Japan

Most of level one in Virtua Cop seems to
be populated by Mack-suited extras from
the cast of the cult film Rosorvoir Dogs

hours' target practice. A lightgun is
planned for release with the game, but
the add-on only raises the question
about Virtua Cop's money value. Even
the best light-gun coin-op/home console
translates badly, and Virtua Cop is
unlikely to draw the crowds Sega f*-w)
needs to attract to the Saturn. LLjj

The surrealistic PC
adventure of the decade
comes to life on Jaguar
. . . faster and more
colorful than on any
other planet. (Coming in j
September)

no^i

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Create the most powerful
game system ever!
Taguar CD is now
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Experience the digital
A jungle unleashed with
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Killer titles cominq soon for Taquar CD:

Thea Realm Fiqhters
Robinson's Requiem
Mover StriKe
Rise Of Th,e Robots
BlacK ICEWVhite Noise
Waqne GretzKw. MocKei/

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Miqlilander
Baldies

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IN SOFTWARE 1NCLUMD

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w w

TAWK

Cybersled PlayStation Greatest Nine Saturn Ballz 3D0 FlipOut! Jaguar Mario Smash Virtual Boy

Street Hoop Neo-Geo Virtual Pool PC Dark Forces Macintosh Chrono Trigger Super NES Tekken 2 arcade

Mk m mm

Every new game reviewed and rated by the best in the business

PlayStation

Saturn

3D0

Jaguar

Virtual Boy

Neo-Geo

Macintosh

100

Sega CD

102

Genesis

102

Super NES

107

Arcade

108

Sega 32X

PlayStation

CyberSled

Publisher: Namco
Developer: Namco

While CyberSled enjoyed its own
measure of success in the
arcades, it is doubtful that the
home version will be able to
create the same kind of
excitement. It's not that the
translation to the PlayStation
suffered any sort of significant
damage, but without the doubie-
screen supplied in the arcade for
two-player action, there is very
little left here to enjoy.

Well, yes, there is a split-
screen, two-player mode. But the
amount of screen allotted to each
player generally means a mind-
numbing game of squinting and
neck-craning just to keep up with
what's going on in the match.

This title probably didn't need
to come home at all, but if you're
an absolute die-hard fan of the
original coin-op, the one-player
mode is a close match.
Rating: **

The split-screen view is a tragic,
but unavoidable flaw of the home
version of CyberSled

Saturn

Astal

Publisher: Sega (Japan)
Developer: InVision

This is the game that answers the
question "Is it worthwhile to
make traditional side-scrolling
action games on the new 32-bit
systems?" Astal takes a deep
stab at it, but unfortunately the
game answers the question with
a reluctant "No."

The deep, vivid colors of Astal are the first thing you'll notice about this
game. Here, the small but powerful Astal stares down the Crystalline trio

It's not that Astal doesn't
make use of the new color palette
or even the vast scaling abilities
of the Saturn, it does, but when
you come right down to it, there's
not really anything here that
couldn't be done nearly as well
with a 16-bit machine.

Astal is, in the end, a fine,
side-scrolling action game, and if
you already own a Saturn and you
love side-scrolling action games,
then this is a good one to pursue,
but this game would not exactly
make a good argument for buying
a 32-bit machine.
Rating: ***

Battle Monsters

Publisher: Naxat Soft (Japan)
Developer: Naxat Soft

With many of the latest two-
dimensional fighting games
showing off their imaginative
development in the form of more
and more gruesome moves, it's
nice to see a game take a slightly
different approach. Battle
Monster's is more interested in
creating gruesome characters
with which to fight. For example,
you will not find in any other
fighting game a character that
beats his opponents to death with
his own dismembered head.

Beyond the creative
abnormalities, though, there is
very little here to get excited
about. The animation is choppy,
and the action itself is predictable
and lackluster. The overall look of
the game isn't bad, but the

characters are never quite
enveloped within the background.
Instead, what's left is a nice
background with characters which
seem to be cut and pasted on to
the television screen.
Rating: **

Bug!

Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega

If there was one gaming genre
that simply had to grow to survive
in the arena of next generation
consoles, it was definitely the
platform game. Sega takes a
noteworthy crack at breathing
some 32-bit life into this well-worn
formula with its first platformer,
Bug!. The jump to 32-bit brought
with it a whole new dimension,
literally. Bugl brings with it that
ever-elusive third dimension,
opening a whole new world of
running and jumping opportunities.

Although the concept is
intriguing, the action and graphics

rating 3D0

Saturn

The choice of views In Greatest Nine is a great way to customize
your game. The colorful commentary also has a magical quality

SWINGING

Greatest Nine

Publisher: Sega (Japan)
Developer: In Vision

For many, the decision to buy a next generation machine will
depend on the quality of the new console's sports libraries. This
being the case, the Saturn will definitely be turning some heads
and opening some wallets with this title. Greatest Nine is
currently being developed for the American market and will, at
release, have full Major League Baseball licensing.

What makes this game worthy of being called a next
generation sports title is not any particular innovative feature
that makes you forget that you're playing an age-old game, but
rather the impressive execution of all the features you've come
to love in great baseball games of the past. This is not to say
that there are no new features here, because there are certainly
no other games with a choice in camera angle like Greatest
Nine, or the excellent colorful commentary, but these elements
only add extra satisfaction to what was already a great-looking
and great-playing baseball game.

In the end, minus a few malfunctioning control features
that Sega US promises to fix,
Greatest Nine is an excellent
sports title for the Satui
an extremely encouragir
sign of what's to come.
Rating: ****

and

The overall control of the
defensive team makes for
exciting p

The characters in Bug! are
Imaginative but predictable

solid, and the characters cute and
amusing, this title is mostly a
direct translation of 2D gaming
into a 3D format. All the old tricks
are represented here, like hopping
on enemies' heads, finding hidden
power-ups, and landing on floating
platforms, giving this one more of
a fun novelty feel than anything
else. For the platforming fanatic,
this is a must-have, and for others
it's still fun, but not genius.
Rating: ***

Gran Chaser's rich backgrounds
and unconventional tracks make
for intense racing action

Gran Chaser

Publisher: Sega (Japan)
Developer: Nextech

Set in a futuristic galaxy, Gran
Chaser represents the next
logical step in racing action for
the Saturn. This hovercraft racer
treats the gamer to a total of 11
tracks representing an elemental
host of worlds that feature ice,
water, and Are.

Considering the draw-in
problems of Daytona USA, the
only other racing game for the
Saturn, Gran Chaser does well
with the graphics, though there is
still a trace of late draw-in
lingering around some of the
corners. The action is fast and
the handling is a sophisticated
system of degrees and timing.

There are some problems with
the width of each track — which
is a little unforgiving to the
novice — and the tracks are
varied more in appearance than in
the way they actually feel, but all
in all, Gran Chaser is good fun, if
not all together great.
Rating: •**

say this, but basically, it sucks.

The correct direction or
button to push is always flashed
on the screen, and none of the
game's eight (count 'em, eight)
sequences pose any challenge at
all — you can literally beat this
game in 15 minutes. Depending
on the order you choose to play
the sequences in, and how many
times you die trying, there are 48
ending scenes — and the thought
of playing this enough times to
see them all ranks right up there
with having your eyelids stapled
open and being forced to watch
"Geraldo" reruns. Thanks, but no.
Rating: *

Syndicate

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Bullfrog

This is starting to get a little old.
Syndicate is a great game, but
we've reviewed no less than
three different versions at
various times this year, and
there's no end in sight.

For the record, this is an
excellent translation of the
original PC version, thanks to the
massive storage capacity of the
CD and the 3D0's 24-bit color
palette. Control leaves a little to
be desired, but that's just the
standard 3D0 control pad letting
us down again. Of all the versions
we've looked at, this is a close
second behind the PC, noticeably
better than the Jaguar, and miles
ahead of the Genesis and Sega
CD versions. Otherwise, it's
exactly the same.
Rating: ****

Strahl

Publisher: Panasonic
Developer: Media
Entertainment

Strahl is a title that's placed
squarely in the Dragon's Lair
tradition, this time using anime-
styled characters and acti
wish there was a better way to

Way

Strahl is another lousy "watch
the movie, push a button" game

3DO's Syndicate is better
looking and more complete than
Sega CD or Genesis versions

Zhadnost: The
People's Party

Publisher: Studio 3DO
Developer: Studio 3D0

This semi-sequel to the early 3D0
hit game show Twisted shares
most (if not all) of that game's
strengths and weaknesses.

It's a "wacky" game show
using FMV contestants and cut
scenes, built around a series of
simple contests. Although the
video quality is excellent, and a
lot of it is outright hilarious — the
show is being "broadcast" from a
former Eastern Bloc nation,

rating jaguar

3DO

ROUND 2

Ballz

Publisher: Panasonic
Developer: PF Magic

Ballz was released for Genesis more than a year ago, and at the time,
it was much better in concept than an in actual game form. By
using, well, balls, which look the same no matter what angle you
see them from, and a couple of them with rudimentary scaling
routines, it was possible to fake a 3D fighting game in a 2D
environment. The trouble was that the Genesis color palette
was so limited, you couldn't tell one ball from the next, and
while some of the animation was Quite clever, it looked awful
and gameplay was confusing.

Now we have the 3D0 version, which affords the game a
vastly improved palette to work with, an actual 3D
environment to move in, and a "Director's Cut" of moves —
attacks deemed too offensive for release on the Genesis —
and it's a vast improvement. Ballz looks better, and controls
surprisingly well. However, at a time when true 3D brawlers like
Battle Arena Toshinden are becoming almost as common on home
systems as their 2D brethren, the usefulness and entertainment value
of a game in which all the fighters look like refugees from a ping-pong
tournament has to be questioned.

If you accept its looks, it plays fine, but this is as much yesterday's
technology as any sprite-based fighter attempting to get away with
digitized characters. It's almost too bad. but it's just a game out of time.
Rating: * *

■TeTeTeW ^^ littl

little time, and the
'Director's Cut" puts
display
than ever (top).
Ballz has a
novel look and
fool, and it
deserves to
be better and
more timely
than It is
(above)

But does anybody really like
watching a bunch of pool-table
castoffs hitting each other?

overeager for the fruits of newly
acquired capitalism — it suffers
from the same limitation all FMV-
based games share — namely,
that once you've played a half-
dozen times, you've seen it all,
over and over and over again.

It makes a great party game,
but wears thin too quickly.
Rating: •**

The Jokes and designs of
Zhadnost are a hoot the first
», less so the loth or 20th

Jaguar

Blue Lightning CD
Publisher: Atari
Developer: Epyx/Atari

Basically, Blue Lightning is a lot
like Sega's old After Burner —
it's a forward-scrolling shooter,
with you in the cockpit of a high-

I The multiple explosions in Atari's
newest shooter, Blue Lightning,
are particularly satisfying

tech warplane (and on a track,
too], piloting a variety of
challenging air-to-air and air-to-
ground combat missions.

What elevates Blue Lightning
over mediocrity is the variety of
planes you can fly — seven —
each of which has markedly
different characteristics. If you
crash, you lose access to that
plane until you complete all the
assignments in the current
mission. The world you fly in is
simulated 3D, which occasionally
gives you the feeling you're flying
through scaling cardboard cut-
outs, but the action is fast
enough and the scrolling is
smooth enough to keep this from
being a serious problem.

You might not expect much
from a game that was originally
released over five years ago, but
Blue Lightning was a great game
when it was released for the Lynx,

and it's still a good one now. It
isn't worth buying the Jag CD to
get this, but if you already have
one, this won't disappoint you.
Rating: ***

FlipOut!

Publisher: Atari
Developer: Gorilla Systems

FlipOut! is an enjoyable and
original puzzler on a system sadly
devoid of them. Using a three-by-
three grid filled with colored tiles,
and one extra, "King Fluffy" flips

all the tiles in the air and you
must keep flipping them until
they're in their original order,
keeping at least one tile in the
air at all times.

FlipOut! is more fun than it
sounds — and this is no Tetris
clone, it requires a novel mode of
thinking to succeed. Progressing
through 50 levels, you contend
with more tiles, new things to flip,
advanced grid layouts and
interference from the little
spectators from Planet Phromaj.
Rating: •*•

It's only proper that Gorilla Systems' puzzler FlipOut! -
Atari's Jaguar — Is whimsical in a purely American n

available for

back to life at a part-human
part -robotic
machine, do you blow him
away or call him Daddy!

octdypse Here's a relationship that's even too screwed up for one of those cheesy talk

/ shows. Introducing Iron Angel of the Apocalypse'." A mad scientist has created you,

the Iron Angel, from flesh, bone and metal. But he didn't program you to mow his

Cool game, huh? lawn and serve drinks at his parties. He wants you to rid the world
Wait until you
* see iron Angel of of the human race. Luckily, you still have enough brain tissue to

the Apocalypse:

" ■ The Return. realize that the world could do without this lunatic. With the help

of a lovely assortment of big-ass guns, your mission is to blast your way to the scientist's
lab on the top floor. If you make it, you can give Pops a Father's Day gift he'll never forget.

Expect blood,
Expect visual

uncensored

violence, but

CDMING IN SEPTEMBER

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rating virtual boy

Virtual Boy

Mario's Dream Tennis